It was the slap too many.
Swept away on his field by Leicester on Friday evening during the third day of the European Cup (29-44), his fourth defeat in five games in all competitions, Clermont decided to dismiss his manager Jono Gibbes this Monday morning, who arrived there has nineteen months to take over from Franck Azéma.
The 45-year-old New Zealander has been plagued by a series of poor results since the start of the season.
The Auvergne club, which will lose Damian Penaud, leaving for Bordeaux-Bègles next season, is today only 10th in the Top 14 after 15 days (6 wins, 1 draw, 8 losses) and started very badly in the Champions Cup (two defeats in three days).
Jono Gibbes, who arrived in Clermont from La Rochelle in the summer of 2021, had signed a contract until 2024. Summoned this Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. by their president, the players were warned that they would be making their trip to South Africa. South where they are to face the Stormers on Saturday without their head coach.
A press release followed.
“This choice of change is part of a context where the ambitions always displayed by the club require taking new directions, specifies the ASM.
As far as the future is concerned, decisions will be announced quickly in order to ensure the continuity of the sports project and to restore a positive dynamic to the whole club, its partners and its supporters.
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Among the most likely options, that of the arrival of Christophe Urios holds the rope.
The former manager of Castres, champion of France with the Tarnais in 2018, was fired last November from Bordeaux-Bègles, which he had managed since 2019 and which he led to the semi-finals of the Top 14 (2021, 2022) and the European Cup (2021), after a series of poor results this season.
His relationship with his players had deteriorated in recent months, especially his relationship with international fly-half Matthieu Jalibert.
Christophe Urios would find in Auvergne a challenge to match his ambitions.
Shortly after leaving Bordeaux, Urios told the newspaper La Montagne: “Rugby is over for the moment but it's only a break.
I need to ask myself, take stock and know what I really want to do.
Where, how and with whom.
Me, I move at the stroke of heart.
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