Mignoni in Figaro: "To give away a lost game, yes, but by removing the pressure on the clubs"

Le Figaro: You are in favor of giving away a lost match to the teams which should forfeit due to Covid, but under certain conditions.
Pierre Mignoni: I actually supported the solution of the lost match in the event of cancellation. Which is likely to happen. But we must, at the same time, take the pressure off the clubs. Which means no descent - and only keep a climb from Pro D2 - qualifying the first eight teams in the final stages… So that the teams no longer have a Damocles sword above their heads. I live it every day in a club. It has been twice that I have cases of Covid in my workforce. It is complicated. But it is absolutely necessary to play, it is necessary that the days are disputed. Let us talk about rugby again on TV, in the newspapers, let it play to the maximum if we want our clubs to live. If we end up having to cancel matches, given the few dates available, we will not be able to replay them. Imagine playing two matches a week for ten months is impossible. So we have to find a compromise to take the pressure off the clubs.

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Some speak of a lack of fairness.
Equity in these moments, it comes after. We do not care. We are all going to be affected, near or far, because no one is immune. If we have to cancel matches, let's cancel them, but let's continue the championship. By releasing the pressure a little on the qualification and the descent, even if it is still necessary to keep objectives so that the competition remains attractive. There may be things to reinvent for this season. Let's just climb up and play 15 clubs next season for example. Because we are in an exceptional situation. This is only my opinion but we can reflect on it, debate it. Especially since the Pro D2 has many more free dates than the Top 14. This allows them to keep an attractive championship by replaying the postponed matches.

“ It will happen to have to play matches without having been able to do collective training. But we have to play ”

Are you worried that there will be a lot of canceled matches?
I'm not a diviner ... I have no doubts that we can play matches with the new protocol. With the old one, I warned that we would not play. Because in the least case everything stopped. There are plenty of canceled friendlies that we could have played. But everyone is so afraid of infecting each other ... Nobody wanted to take this risk because we all want the championship to start. With this new protocol, I am much more confident.

Even if it complicates the task of coaches.
People must understand that, in your workforce, you will have the injured, the Covid cases, which came out for 14 days, and the contact cases, released for 9 days ... We also come back to training in groups of 4, of 5, 8 players. And it's a good thing. The proof, by passing in a group of 4, we can hope to play against Racing ( Saturday 5 September ). Certainly in difficult conditions, but we can play. At a time when I speak in any case, because we are redoing tests on Sunday… It will happen to have to play matches without having been able to do collective training. It may be our case next week. It creates anxiety among the players, and among the staff as well. But we have to play. So we'll play. And I won't complain ...

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