Make way for the unknown.
Due to the health crisis, the EPCR, which organizes European competitions, has set up a new Champions Cup formula.
A new format with now 24 clubs on the starting line, including eight representatives of the Top 14. Two pools of twelve, but each team will play four matches, two at home and two away, without ever meeting a team from its own country .
The Bordeaux-Bègles Union begins on Friday (6.30 p.m. on beIN Sport), with a trip to the English from Northampton, before hosting the Welsh Dragons from Newport.
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UBB manager Christophe Urios, interviewed by the EPCR, insists: with this reduction in the number of matches in the group stage, “more than in past years, each match will be fundamentally important, and each point will be important”.
And the Girondin technician adds that "this new formula (s) excites a lot, because it is short": "In our championship which is very long, in a season which is special with this Covid, and there we have the possibility of having an extremely short format, which is a sprint. "
No room for error, therefore, if the UBB - which is on alternating current in Top 14 (8th with 5 wins and as many defeats) - wants to reach the quarter-finals.
Before tackling a European competition which leaves more room for play than the Top 14, Christophe Urios specifically prepared his team.
He expects “matches that are much more popular, where there is a little more intensity, the ruck phases are refereed differently.
We experienced it this year with Bristol and Edinburgh (in the Challenge Cup).
It's games that are completely different. ”
Semi-finalist of the last edition of the small European Cup (beaten by Bristol), the UBB is this year engaged in the "big one".
"We know very well that it is not the same pace as our Top 14. We will really need to switch to this competition with a different state of mind"
Christophe Urios
“These are games for which you have to prepare well,” continues the Bordeaux manager, who has already started this specific preparation for four weeks.
“It will be weeks that will be a little different in our preparation.
In other words, these are more popular weeks, with more pace… ”The season in England has resumed later than in France, due to the fact that the previous exercise has come to an end.
Unlike the Top 14, stopped after 17 days when Bordeaux-Bègles was in the lead.
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Quarter-finalists of the last Champions Cup, beaten by future champion Exeter (38-15), the "Saints" know at the start of the Premiership a slight delay in the ignition with three defeats in as many days.
But Urios is on his guard.
“It's always the same, it's an away game, it will be a Friday night, we know very well that the Champions Cup matches do not have the same level as the Challenge Cup matches.
We know very well that it is not the same pace as our Top 14. We will really need to switch to this competition with a different state of mind. "
“This Northamton team looks like us. She was very good before the Covid but the first matches after the resumption were more difficult, as for us "
Jandre Marais
Same mistrust on the side of Jandre Marais: “This Northamton team looks like us.
She was very good before the Covid but the first matches after the resumption were more difficult, as for us.
We know they have talent.
Everyone knows they are a good team and everyone outdo themselves in the European Cup, but we are warned and we expect to see them play like Bristol, with a lot of speed, "warns the second row south. African UBB.
Last season, the “Saints” were one of the most playful teams in Europe with an average of 30 defenders beaten per game (best total), while being the team that played the least kicking (16.3 kicking shots). foot per game).
This Northampton-UBB, which will be the very first game of the 2020-2021 season, is expected to sparkle at Franklin's Gardens.
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