A real festival facing Lyon.
A real show of strength.
Alivereti Raka hit hard on October 1 against LOU by scoring an impressive hat-trick in just 23 minutes (28th, 39th, 51st).
The craziest thing is that the international winger of Fijian origin could have scored two more: he indeed flattened two other times but his tries were disallowed firstly because of a forward pass from Newsome, then from an irregular charge from Beheregaray.
To discover
Schedule and Top 14 results
Ranking Top 14
Already during the 2nd day, Raka had made the powder speak by signing a double against the Section Paloise (beaten 33-24 at the Michelin).
With five units on the clock, he is the best try scorer at the start of the season.
The fit man.
Before ASM moved to RC Toulon, Var back Aymeric Luc had clearly targeted Raka as one of the threats to watch closely.
0.67 tries per game with ASM
“In every team there are always guys who are in good shape, guys who can cross the field at any time. There, it's Raka and you have to defend as best you can on him so as not to leave him space,
warned number 15 Var
.
He can exploit them at any time.
We will try to be serious about this and avoid the loss of bullets which can feed it.
“Raka had finally remained silent at Mayol and the RCT had won by a hair's breadth (30-29).
Raka's return to the fore corresponds to the awakening of ASM, which at the start of the exercise regained the offensive strike force it had lost in recent seasons.
After the demonstration against Lyon, Raka relished in the columns of
Midi Olympique
:
“Frankly, with the three-quarter line, we enjoyed it.
We work all week to try to be efficient on match days, so these three tries are very good, but above all it is the reward for the work of my comrades.
»
Gabin Villière and Arthur Vincent absent
And the Clermontois added: “
Numbers, statistics
don't interest me more than that.
My only concern is that the team wins.
These leading performances will not have escaped Fabien Galthié and Laurent Labit, respectively coach and coach of the attack of the XV of France, with the approach of the autumn test-matches (Australia, South Africa, Japan).
Especially since the staff of the Blues will have to compose without Gabin Villière (Toulon) but also Arthur Vincent (Montpellier), often used on the wing.
Alivereti Raka (27 years old, 5 caps) - who has now scored 70 tries in 104 starts with ASM (0.67 tries per match!) - could therefore return to Marcoussis, he who has no longer been recalled to the Blues from England-France in December 2020, on the occasion of the lost final of the short-lived Autumn Nations Cup (22-19 ap).
At the time, the Auvergne winger, who was present at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, lacked playing time, but Galthié gave him a chance.
“He came with us quite a bit of time during the 2020 Tournament .
He also came back when he was suspended
.
Franck Azema
(Clermont manager at the time)
had the good idea to send him to us as a training partner,
explained the tricolor coach.
Wednesday training is the equivalent of a match, it goes even faster than the matches.
We considered him ready despite the few matches he had to play.
This time, Raka has game time. And legs on fire.