What will there be on this little tongue of greenery, closed to view, at nightfall, a drop of the Garonne?
A bunch of half-rebellious, half-frightened youths, sketched by an ogre from another planet?
A rugby match on a Saturday night on Earth, as sung by Francis Cabrel, who lives close to the Armandie stadium.
Not just any game.
There was a world, before, where this Agen-Toulouse would have stirred up crowds and unleashed passions.
It was then a question of supremacy in France between two of the greatest schools of this game. But that was before the pandemic, of course, but also before professionalism.
Today, the mines are sad in Lot-et-Garonne where Petit Poucet does not find any of the stones left behind.
Fourteen games, fourteen losses.
Fifteenth and the SUA would equal the record of Perpignan two years ago.
The red lantern is already no longer quite in Top 14. “It's a very complicated season, blows the president Jean-François Fonteneau.
We are aware that we are planning on the Pro D2.
The situation is difficult.
“Montpellier, just ahead in the standings and barrage for the moment, has eighteen more points with one game less.
An insurmountable chasm.
What if there was only that.
A manager fired, players laid off and a fight
In this black season, the Blues and Whites have seen red so many times.
After a rout in Bordeaux (71-5), on October 31, Christophe Laussucq, the manager, former scrum half of the Stade Français, was disembarked and replaced by Régis Sonnes, former assistant to Ugo Mola… in Toulouse.
Three players, Jordan Puletua, Sam Vaka and Jamie-Jerry Taulagi, deemed dilettantes, were dismissed in the wake of inappropriate behavior before being reinstated a few days later.
"There was a resignation on the part of the players," said the president.
I made decisions.
When things go badly, you can't change the entire workforce.
I wanted to create an electric shock.
Did I change coaches too soon?
Too late?
We can always ask ourselves the question.
"
The defeats continue to pile up.
The atmosphere deteriorates in the locker rooms.
And on December 19, back from a European Challenge match, finally canceled, in Italy, two alcoholic players come to blows in the hall of Treviso airport.
Tongan hooker Paul Ngauamo and scrum half Hugo Verdu were laid off on December 22.
The first is finally released from his contract and goes to Castres.
The second is reinstated.
The affair does not end there since the wife of Ngauamo does not even wait for the officialization of the verdict to draw a line on a club where her husband has played for three seasons, and sells his jerseys on Facebook… " These are things that are also happening elsewhere but, obviously, when the results are not good, they are brought to light and it shows even more, ”deplores Jean-François Fonteneau.
"When the physical is affected, morale follows and relationships deteriorate"
How to explain the downfall of a team that had managed to save its place in the elite for three seasons after a few years spent in the elevator.
"We have the smallest budget of the Top 14, explains the president
(Editor's note: 13 million euros, two times less than La Rochelle, the 8th, and three times less than the Stade Français or Toulouse)
.
Everything went wrong.
We were affected by the Covid-19 from the start of the championship, and after a few defeats, the spiral took place.
We then entered a period of transfers.
Some are looking to leave and look elsewhere because they have clauses not to play in Pro D2.
It is difficult to create unity especially since it is difficult to breathe a little oxygen because we have been living in a bubble for months.
"
A downward spiral.
“There is nothing incredible, insists a close to the club.
We have a budget of Pro D2, a workforce of Pro D2.
When we take beatings in rugby, we break guys.
So we had a lot of injuries.
We lined up kids who physically couldn't hold up at this level, especially in front, in the scrum.
That's why, we gave in a lot of times, on the second part of the match.
And, then, when the physical is affected, morale follows and relationships deteriorate.
It's the same everywhere.
The problem is that, to interrupt this, we need forces and we don't have any.
"While waiting to go to breathe on the lower floor in order to catch her breath, Agen continues her way of the cross, with as only weapon, the ardor of a youth who perhaps does not know, after all, that he It is impossible for him to beat this Toulouse stadium.
In principle.
This Friday evening, La Rochelle passed Toulouse in the standings, dominating Bayonne (40-3).
