UBB Clinches Important Victory against LOU in Top 14 Faceoff

The Union played very big this Sunday evening at the end of the 23rd day. The combined defeats of Racing 92 and Toulon offered him the opportunity to make up for his defeat on the gong of the previous weekend against the Ile-de-France (31-28) and at the same time enter the top 6. Almost an obligation for a club who will travel twice during the last three days, in Toulouse and Toulon, and who therefore had every interest in keeping the cards in hand in the final sprint.

An issue generating tensions that was felt during the game. Before this last quarter of an hour when everything changed, not a try was scored. However, it was not quite a question of a purge like the day before between the French stadium and Toulouse. On the Bordeaux side, the rhythm and the will to play were present but not the efficiency. It is also the fault of a Lyon defense brave enough to hold its line in hot moments.

Three failures in front of the Lyon goal line

Shortly before the twentieth minute of play, after a very good launch out of touch in the 22 meters of the LOU, Caleb Timu found himself a few centimeters from the line (18th). The Englishman Tom Willis, a bit in too much of a hurry to finish the shot, then threw himself into the trap and could only flatten a defender. Returning from the locker room, the same Willis, found at the end of the line after a huge breakthrough Timu, was thrown into touch only 5 meters from the in-goal. Finally, just before the hour mark, it was Santiago Cordero who saw himself very close to scoring but was forced to put his foot in touch before flattening (59th).

Choice ammunition left on the way which could have damaged the minds of Maxime Lucu’s partners, still imperial at the foot (5/5). This was not the case with a Gironde team which was able to stay in its match despite its failures: “We had a good job of wear and we were rewarded in the second half, commented the pillar Jefferson Poirot at the microphone of Canal +. We stayed in what we said to each other, keeping our structure and reproducing what we worked on during the week”. The reward came with the tries of Maxime Lamothe (69th) and Nicolas Depoortère (73rd) in the last quarter of an hour, blowing up a scoreboard hitherto blocked at 9-9

For Lucu, also interviewed by the broadcaster, it is his team’s ability to adapt their strategic approach that is the key to this happy ending. “It took time to undermine this Lyon defense. We tried to play but a lot laterally. We weren’t advancing too much and we were losing a lot of balls. In the second half, we decided to get a little more into this Lyon defense with our impact players, to hurt them a little more on the line of advantage. It cracked after a while and it does us good after the difficult month that we have experienced”. A good result in the standings by a fourth place more in line with its ambitions.