MAINTENANCE – The Bordeaux scrum-half looks back on the tensions at the end of the season and the ambitions before the start of the season, Sunday with the reception of Stade Toulousain. He also evokes without language of wood his statute of lining of Antoine Dupont in team of France.
What is your assessment of last season, with two stops in the semi-finals in the Top 14 and in the Champions Cup?
Funny Maxims: There is always a lot of disappointment. Our first seven months have been excellent. When you have a lead of fifteen points (at the top of the ranking, editor’s note) with ten days to go, it’s disappointing to only win a play-off and then be eliminated in the semi-finals. We didn’t get there in the best of moods. In the semi-finals, we came across a Montpellier team that was much more established and much more serious than us. I have the impression that we are having a fixation on the semi-finals. We will have to take this step…
What lessons have you learned from it?
That, even if the season is very long, you have to be serious all along. As the finals approached, all the teams were in sprint mode, not us. You have to be better and more consistent all season long. And arrive more disciplined, more realistic, much sharper. We deserve to qualify for a final. But we have to stop putting up with these big events and saying to ourselves “it’s already good”.
The end of the season was also marked by strong tensions between your manager and a few players, Matthieu Jalibert and Cameron Woki in particular…
It happens. There is a lot of pressure. And there were tensions. When you concede a dozen defeats in the second half of the season, it’s complicated to maintain a peaceful atmosphere. And losing in Perpignan, to a promoted player, to miss the direct semi-finals, it’s normal for there to be tension… So we had to say things to each other, be honest between us, underline what hadn’t not worked. Recognize that we had not made all the necessary efforts. We put everything back together to start from scratch. The new players and young people have brought a new impetus, emulation in the group. Good humor and positivism are essential.
“The responsibilities I was given in the France team allowed me to overcome my shyness a little, to believe in myself, to feel more legitimate. »
Christophe Urios has announced that he will adapt his management. Can you tell us more?
We will have to see as the season progresses. He wants to empower us more and more, that the elders take the lead in complicated times. He will set up weeks where the players will take charge of the sessions, the videos. We are the ones on the field, the goal is to be less dependent on the coaches. That’s what’s missing when you’re in trouble, I think.
How did you experience the unexpected departure of Cameron Woki for Racing 92?
It’s complicated for us. Cameron is a very good guy, a great player. There was certainly this complicated moment at the end of the season, but when you do nine months at this level, there can be a drop in speed… His absence will be a lack, in the athlete and in the human. Selfishly, we are disappointed for us. But it’s a personal choice – he’s getting closer to his family – that we respect. It is up to him to lead his life, his career, as he sees fit. We only wish him positive. But we lost a huge element in the last moments.
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How do you exercise your leadership in Bordeaux?
It is natural from my position, but it is not rooted in me. I am quite a shy person. With the responsibilities that were given to me in the France team, these high-stakes matches as a substitute, I evolved in this area. I gained more weight in the Bordeaux team. And I find it fun. It allowed me to overcome my shyness a little, to believe in myself, to feel more legitimate.
“It’s Antoine Dupont the number one. You have to be humble with that. It’s complicated to pretend to pass in front of the best player in the world, the captain… ”
The XV of France precisely. Last season, you are on the ten game sheets (the only one with the Toulouse hooker Peato Mauvaka, editor’s note). So you are clearly number 2 at the scrum half position. Do you aspire to become number 1?
(he laughs frankly) It’s complicated with Antoine Dupont, he’s so important for the team, the French team’s game is so dependent on him. Every weekend, we see his qualities. It’s hard to compare yourself to him when you have a completely different game to his. But the staff of the XV of France has set up a complementarity in the position of number 9. I work with that. I know that the role of finisher is very important. But it’s Antoine Dupont number one. You have to be humble with that. It’s complicated to claim to pass in front of the best player in the world, the captain. I don’t play against him to steal his place, but with him to be complementary. This osmosis allows the France team to perform well.
With the World Cup in September 2023, there is a big personal goal this season…
I play my role in every training session, in every match. It only takes one mistake to lose it. It is not because you have made the Grand Slam that you are assured of your place. It will therefore be necessary, first of all, that I be good with Bordeaux, that Bordeaux be good. That I am still progressing. I want to continue to participate in the adventure because I had a lot of fun. It’s a bit of a personal consecration. I want to relive those moments for my family and for me. The World Cup is still a long way off but these are years of a life, as they say. You have to make sacrifices for that. I have done it and I will continue to do it.
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Back to UBB. Things are moving behind with the departures of Seuteni, Lam, Trinh-Duc… Do you quickly find your bearings with the newcomers?
We worked for two or three seasons with the same group and there, indeed, we are starting a bit from scratch. But they are revengeful, they want to prove, like Zack Homes or Tani Vili. They brought a lot of momentum during the preparation.
There’s also a surprise signing in Congolese winger Madosh Tambwe, coming from South Africa and the Bulls…
It’s a bomb! He is explosive, somewhat in the same style as Cheslin Kolbe. I didn’t know him and I was very surprised watching him in training: puncher, strong, extremely well prepared physically. In addition he is very smiling, full of joie de vivre. It is already very well integrated. It’s a very good surprise. I hope he will bring us all his qualities as a finisher.
At UBB, you can count on the support of the public, the best attendance of a rugby club in Europe. Is it pressure or motivation?
It’s only positive. Every weekend in Chaban is a party for me. The supporters are incredible, always responding, even when we have a series of defeats. Every time I leave the tunnel to enter the lawn, it carries me. I use their enthusiasm a lot. They deserve to be given joy, pleasure, with an explosive and spectacular game. We will try to make Chaban sing as much as possible. To continue to grow to take this club to the top.
“Coming up against a South African team in the Champions Cup is not necessarily a positive thing that comes out of it for the moment. Twice eleven hours by plane and a change of climate in the middle of the season, it’s quite folkloric…”
What are your ambitions in the Champions Cup?
It’s a goal too, of course. There too, we regularly fell in the semi-finals, each time against the future winner. We gain experience. And we found that having a good run launched the team for the end of the championship. We must use this competition to progress.
With a trip to South Africa, to face the Durban Sharks in mid-January…
It’s weird, I’m not hiding it from you. Six days later, we have an important match in the Top 14. It’s new. And it doesn’t seem easy to me to make such a long trip and to chain performances behind it. It is not necessarily positive that comes out of it for the moment. But we are not going to go there with our heads down and ruminating, otherwise we will come back even more frustrated and this trip will have been for nothing. We are going to face a big team that plays another type of rugby. It is an experience that should serve us. But hey, it’s twice eleven hours by plane and a change of climate in the middle of the season. It’s quite folkloric…
Sunday evening, you start your season by hosting Stade Toulousain. A shock of entry…
We have never received them so fully, with practically all their internationals. They arrive with the disappointment of having made zero finals last season. The words will be simple, the state of mind, the defense will prevail. In motivation, these are the easiest matches to prepare for. We can’t wait to receive them, to find a full Chaban stadium (smile).