It's the same old story.
Every season.
It will be necessary to count on the Castres Olympique at the time of the final stages of the Top 14. A team apart, an irreproachable state of mind, an aggressiveness which, every year, causes damage.
Outrageous combat, a team that never gives up, the recipe is known but it still works.
Latest victim to date: Lyon, another candidate declared in the end-of-season qualifying matches, which bit the dust - spectacularly - at the Pierre-Antoine stadium (37-29).
For a success of the CO which sent a strong signal.
For the first time this season, the Tarnais entered the top 6 and intend to stay there.
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Appetite comes with eating. This was confirmed by international third row Anthony Jelonch: “It's a great victory and I'm really proud of my team. We showed that we deserve to go for the top 6. We were very realistic and we responded in a match that looked a bit like a final phase match. " And to recall that Castres has come a long way, a very long way: “I am happy when I think back that we were thirteenth in December. The click, we had it in Lyon (victory 14-15 in the first leg) and now we play with confidence and we want to eat all our opponents. "
In the heart of winter, the club with the five French championship titles (1949, 1950, 1993, 2013, 2018) trailed its sentence at the bottom of the ranking. In a poor thirteenth place. Before President Pierre-Yves Revol tries an electric shock by dismissing Mauricio Reggiardo (since left for Provence Rugby) and giving the keys of the truck to Pierre-Henry Broncan. For an impressive rise in the rankings. Since the start of the year, the OC have won 10 of the 13 games they have played. With prestigious successes on the top two in the standings, Toulouse and La Rochelle. Better, the Castres have chained last Saturday a fifth success in a row. Confirming their return to the foreground.
“In Castres, the strength of this club is carried by incredible players. Tichit, Jacquet, Babillot, the Kockott hinge and Urdapilleta, Dumora, Combezou, wear this ”
Christophe Urios
And on Saturday (2:45 p.m.) a new major challenge looms with a trip to the lawn of the Union Bordeaux-Bègles, now coached by Christophe Urios, former mentor of the Castres champion of France 2018 with the nose and beard of the big stables of the Top 14. A necessarily special reunion for the Girondin technician who gets on with “a scoundrel match” against his former proteges.
The pillar Antoine Tichit, who knew Urios in Oyonnax then in Castres, told
La Dépêche du Midi
: “I played 11 years with him as a coach, but I don't know exactly what he meant. I also know that he has evolved, he is no longer solely in combat rugby, like us here where we try to have total rugby. Tomorrow there will be some fighting of course because there is the top 6 race, but it's nice to fight against him. Personally, I want to show him that he trained me well and have a good and beautiful match. "
For his part, the manager of the UBB held this week to pay tribute to his former club: "Castres is a team that seeks to put pressure on you, whether through their game, their attitude, their behavior, etc. t is a controlling team.
It is their strength.
Since 2021 and the change of staff, we feel that the players have returned to things that they control well, which is the strength of the team, the strength of the club.
They are rebels. ”
The “scratching hair” team par excellence
And Christophe Urios to insist on the quality of the Castres workforce, carried strong characters, real painful: “In Castres, the strength of this club is carried by incredible players. Tichit, Jacquet, Babillot, the Kockott hinge and Urdapilleta, Dumora, Combezou, wear this. " Last week, Pierre Mignoni, LOU manager, also highlighted the mental strength of the CO. “The Castres deserve their victory and their rise in the standings, he admitted. They showed a state of mind superior to ours. The game is good, but in rugby, there is combat, rucks ... To win at Castres, you had to do a lot more and a lot better. "
Castres, the “scratching hair” team par excellence, is ready for battle.
It will be necessary because the end of the regular season will be muscular.
After the UBB, another big trip awaits the Tarnais in Brive, before receiving Toulon, which for the moment is only three points ahead of Mathieu Babillot's teammates.
That heavy in perspective.
Everything the CO loves.
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