Montpellier is not completely healed.
But Montpellier is doing better.
After the spectacular coup at the Arena against Racing 92 (20-44), the MHR confirmed - by winning last weekend against Bayonne (28-23), a rival for maintenance - that he is no longer this injured and apathetic beast who had a ghostly start to the season (one victory then nine defeats at the start).
“We take what we can take.
It's the kind of match we could have lost three months ago.
It shows progress,”
welcomed
Montpellier winger Gabriel Ngandebe to
Midi Libre .
To discover
Calendar and results Top 14
Ranking Top 14
The game against the Basques was perfectly launched by a try from South African scrum-half Cobus Reinach in the second minute of play. Strong in scrum and solid in defense, the Héraultais always took the lead, without however succeeding in land some eye-catching Bayonnais.
Manager Patrice Collazo, perfectionist and demanding, pointed out the dangerous oscillations in the performance of his troops.
“There is control at times, a lack of control at others,”
laments the former strongman of La Rochelle and Toulon.
We had an opportunistic start to the match with Cobus Reinach's try and then we found ourselves in difficulty.
Systematically, as soon as we have done something good, we have done less well behind it.”
“The Challenge Cup did us good, we found momentum again”
Still, the MHR is breathing a little.
Since the arrival of the new staff put in place by Bernard Laporte, the French champion club in 2022 has regained color: only three defeats in eleven matches, in all competitions, since mid-December.
If the Cistes remain thirteenth in the standings (29 points), they are now seven points ahead of the last Oyonnax, to whom they go on Saturday (5 p.m.).
And the battle to avoid the play-off place is taking shape with Perpignan (12th, 31 points), Bayonne (11th, 33 pts) and Lyon (10th, 33 pts).
International center Arthur Vincent necessarily keeps his feet on the ground:
“We fell into a false rhythm in the first half
(against Bayonne).
It was a little sluggish, but we have to continue like this and work.
The Challenge Cup did us good, we found some momentum again.”
A shared speech for the opener Louis Carbonel who had recently underlined that
“the Challenge allowed us to free our heads.
We are in a group dynamic, with a different discourse.”
In the fight to remain in the Top 14, the Montpellier club had in fact woke up thanks to the "small" European Cup, by aligning three entry successes (then an inconsequential setback) in a competition that it has already won in 2016 and 2021.
Will the MHR go all out?
Especially since the Héraultais will receive a major opponent, the Northern Irish province of Ulster, accustomed to scrapping at the top level.
Collazo charts the course and for the moment is only thinking about maintaining:
“We have a fortnight to change the course of our season and perhaps the course of the club.
Next week, we go to Oyonnax and then we will host Bordeaux.
These two weeks can change a lot of things but you have to give yourself the means.
Nothing will be served to us on a platter.”