A heavy blow for Biarritz Olympique.
By losing Saturday in Aguiléra against Perpignan (23-25) in the match of fear between promoted, the Basques have greatly complicated the task for the maintenance.
Here they are now the red lantern of the Top 14, three points behind Usap, which will have the accounting advantage at the end of the season in the event of a tie since the Catalans had already bowed in the first leg, in Aimé. Giral (33-20).
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Read also Rugby: the president of Biarritz sharply returns to the conflict between him and the club association
In a harsh and choppy match -
"it was a Pro D2 match"
, admitted the Perpignan third-line Damien Chouly - the BO was sorely lacking in control against an opponent he knows by heart.
Shaken in melee, approximate in touch (three throws lost), the Biarrots can blame themselves.
They have regularly persisted in playing the penalty kicks rather than attempting the penalties.
At the very end of the game, they thought they had made the difference when Herron passed a penalty (23-22, 74th).
But, on the following dismissal, Mahu scratched the winning ball and Jaminet did not tremble to offer the victory to the Catalans (25-23, 76th).
"It's a shame that by returning to the front five minutes from the end, we are not killer enough and we cannot fold the match"
, enraged the Basque third line Mathieu Hirigoyen.
It's badly barred, but that does not mean that we are going to give up.
Someone should explain to me that it is no longer mathematically possible
Matthew clarkin
Biarritz nevertheless wants to believe in better days.
“We lose a very important game, which we had targeted. We are very disappointed, but it is not over, we are still in the race, there are about ten games left,
continues Hirigoyen.
It's up to us to raise our heads and show character as we have already been able to do this season. "
Same speech on the side of sports director Matthew Clarkin, quoted by
Sud Ouest
:
“We are still in the battle for maintenance. It's badly barred, but that does not mean that we are going to give up. Someone should explain to me that this is no longer mathematically possible. "
After the European window, the Biarrots will be entitled to another chance, facing another contender for maintenance, Brive.
A trip once again "to life, to death" for the BO engaged in a three-way fight, at the bottom of the ranking, with the Corréziens and the Catalans.
"Hopefully we are not wrong a second time
," warns Matthew Clarkin.
In the midst of a sporting storm, the BO has also had to face, for many months, extra-sporting turmoil with a conflict that dragged on between the management of the club, the town hall of Biarritz and the Association which manages the amateur sector.
At the heart of the bickering, the renovation of the Aguiléra stadium has unleashed passions between the town hall and the club, which has outright threatened to relocate to the North.
The "Galactics" of the Association
For this, the current leaders of the club would need the club's affiliation number with the FFR, which is the property of the Association. Recently, former great BO players (Harinordoquy, Yachvili, Traille ...) took control of the Association, now headed by David Couzinet. This led to the anger of the president of the board of directors of the BO, Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, who accuses the mayor of the city, Maider Arosteguy, of being behind the arrival of those who are now nicknamed the "Galactics" and of support them financially.
At the end of the year, Jean-Baptiste Aldigé had expressed his anger in the columns of the
South West. "Ms. Arosteguy does not want to interfere by taking Couzinet out of the association, but on September 15, it was not interference to put him there?" She activates
(Sébastien)
Beauville
(ex-president of the Association, Editor's note)
in April, there are repercussions on the club. It activates the Galactics - we should rather call the cafetiers - there are repercussions,
had vituperated the leader of Biarritz.
It removes the subsidy of 350,000 from the SASP to give it to the association, there are repercussions. Of course they weren't going to the association! There had to be a maximum of 70,000 who went to the association. The rest,we kept it at SASP. ”
This flawed context, which has lasted for many months, does not seem to be getting better.
Added to this are now poor sports results.
The return to the elite, after seven years of absence, of Biarritz Olympique - historic bastion of French rugby (champion 1935, 1939, 2002, 2005 and 2006) - is most tormented ...