The slap hurt.
Last Saturday, the UBB, semi-finalist of the Champions Cup and the Top 14 last season, fell heavily to earth.
Faced with promoted Biarritz, much more determined and aggressive, the men of Christophe Urios have long been taken by the throat, before a jump at the end of the match to make the addition a little less severe (27-15).
Coming out of this stinging defeat, words were harsh on the Bordeaux side.
"
That's good, that's rugby.
There is always a path to victory for a team that wants more than the other, even if they don't have the biggest budget or the best players.
We took a lesson in enthusiasm, courage, balls, rugby.
(…) I saw a team that wanted to win much more than the one I coach.
I did not see the Bordeaux team on the ground.
We know why we did not succeed in winning the match: we got eaten,
”summed up Christophe Urios, jaw clenched and your tone more than annoyed.
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At the microphone of Canal +, the center of the UBB Rémi Lamerat had not mince words either.
“
It's a lesson in complete humility.
We came as senators, me first.
So we're going to put our heads down and go back to work.
This week, at a press conference, hooker Clément Maynadier confirmed this relentless observation.
“
I don't know if we thought we had arrived.
But collectively, we have not been good.
Individually, we weren't good.
Rugbystically, we were not good, not smart.
We were caught in all sectors in Biarritz.
The slap, we take it now.
It's up to us to react.
"
Training was relocated to Chaban-Delmas on Tuesday
From this Saturday therefore, and the reception of the Stade Français Paris. Win without delay so as not to gamble. "
It was the first game of the year, there are still 25 to play," said Maynadier. If we put the spleen in court bouillon now, the season will be long. We're gonna have an ulcer ... We discussed it. We paid it off. Now, we are turned to the big challenge which is the reception of the Stade Français.
"A meeting prepared with a"
studious
"
state of mind
and nourished by"
the enthusiasm to return to Chaban
".
Between the closed doors and the restricted gauges, the UBB has indeed not evolved in its full stadium for 18 months - 559 days, specifies the club. So the reunion with the supporters is awaited with undisguised impatience. "
It's been a very long time,
"
says the hooker. We look forward to it. I'm excited to find a crazy Chaban. I play rugby to experience emotions like that. Enter a full stadium. Chaban filled, it's fabulous, it's magic. So I hope there will be as many people as possible. We're going to need it…
”To prepare for it, the training, traditionally carried out on the lawn of the Moga stadium in Bègles, was relocated to Chaban-Delmas on Tuesday. "
We haven't seen him for a while.
For us, it is a way of taking back possession of the premises,
”explained Christophe Urios.
“
I can't wait to smell the merguez sausages.
"
Christophe Urios
The UBB manager also expects a lot from this return to life. “
In Biarritz, the atmosphere was hot. And we're not used to that anymore. I found that there was a real communion between the public and their team. Who managed to share his emotions with his supporters. So we want them to wait for us when we arrive. We want them to sing when we start the match. We want to blackmail Chaban. We want to share a great moment,
”lists Urios. Who calls for mobilization. “
Let people come in large numbers. With cousins, with neighbors. It doesn't matter if they don't talk to each other too much anymore, they will sit in different rows
, ”he slips mischievously. Before adding a definitive: "
I long to feel thesmell of merguez!
"
To thrill its audience, the UBB will be able to count on the return of its Blues who left on tour with the XV of France this summer in Australia: Cameron Woki and Cyril Cazeaux, to densify a Bordeaux pack heckled in Biarritz, as well as the Roman rear Buros, who had not played a single minute of play against the Wallabies.
Without forgetting that of the pillar with extraordinary dimensions, Ben Tameifuna.
“
We are expected now,” recalls Clément Maynadier.
We will therefore do everything to fill the jersey.
“To capsize Chaban and not to spoil the tribute that will be paid to one of his most emblematic players, Australian winger Blair Connor. Ten seasons and 219 matches in the UBB jersey before hanging up the crampons in June 2020. More than a year of waiting for his exit to be celebrated with dignity by the people of Gironde. It would be a shame to spoil this moment.
