Without question, the transfer of the summer of French rugby.
An essential figure in the XV of France, winner of the All Blacks and author of the Grand Slam, the second or third row Cameron Woki leaves Bordeaux-Bègles to join Racing 92 on the last day of the summer transfer window a year before the end of his contract.
But the Hauts-de-Seine club is forced to make room for him so as not to exceed the authorized limit of the payroll.
Among the "sacrificed", another French international, the massive Baptiste Pesenti.
“I had a good bond with him.
The fact of seeing him leave, we asked ourselves questions, admitted at the start of the season the Racingman Wenceslas Lauret.
It always hurts to part with someone like that, and there it was a bit abrupt.
“But the second line did not go very far, since Racing promptly ceded it to neighboring Stade Français.
And for this Christmas derby that he will start as a starter on Saturday (3 p.m.) at Paris La Défense Arena, the 25-year-old obviously intends to bring unpleasant gifts to his former partners.
“He will only want to try to hurt us”
“Camille
(Cat)
met him on Monday, he told us that he was very well put together, explains his counterpart at Racing 92, Boris Palu.
Inevitably, it must be complicated, the end of the season he had, he finds himself in the enemy club… He will only have one desire, which is to try to hurt us.
And in this register of combat it is better to have it with you than against you!
»
This is precisely why the Ciel et Blancs had recruited him a year and a half ago.
After a Top 14 semi-final where his forwards had been overthrown by those of La Rochelle, the club's president, Jacky Lorenzetti, took him on to add "rusticity" to his training.
Racing 92 pays 500,000 euros to obtain his early release from Pau, and makes him sign a four-year contract.
But the Jura, who prides himself on “going to take the blows in place of the others”, is slowed down by a heavy shoulder injury.
More than four months of absence, a return where he does not impose himself, a last appearance as a substitute during the European half lost against La Rochelle, and here is for the balance sheet of Pesenti, only holder seven times in one season.
Baptiste Pesenti only started seven times with Racing 92 last season.
LP/Icon Sport/Sandra Ruhaut
“If we want to consider that it is a failure, it is one for everyone: for him, for the club, for me because it was I who did what was necessary to have Baptiste, recognizes the manager Ile-de-France Laurent Travers.
There are seasons that sometimes don't go in the right direction, and it's important to try to restart differently, with the club or elsewhere.
In Baptiste's case, it was done at the last moment and I'm the first to be sorry.
»
A few kilometers away, we are on the contrary the first delighted.
“It looks like he has been there for several seasons, he brings us a lot on and off the field, lists the coach of the Parisian forwards, Laurent Sempéré.
He's always going all out, there won't be a button press to get him fired up for the derby.
“Where even more than usual, Baptiste Pesenti will take pleasure in giving his body in the rucks.
