Top 14. Toulouse without several Blues in Montpellier: “We don’t send our players to the fire…”
By Clement Mazella
Published on
the Toulouse stadium one makes his choice. For moving to Montpellier this Sunday, October 2, 2022, at the end of the 5e day of Top 14the Rouge et Noir play without the internationals Antoine Dupont, Anthony Jelonch and Peato Mauvaka, all 3 aligned during the first 4 days and who are offered a rest period.
Mola: “There is a planned rotation, over periods of data”
This rest should be related to the international deadline which will arrive in a little over 11 months, namely the World Cup 2023. At the beginning of September, the head coach, Ugo Mola, indicated that he had had discussions with the coach of the XV of France, Fabien Galthié, as well as his staff, in order to discuss the management of the internationals during this crucial season for French rugby.
“We talked, just like with our players, and we set the scene. I am not a fan of the planned rotation, but I can tell you that there is a planned rotation, based on period data, so that we manage to spare our troops, ”admitted the technician, making it clear that rest beaches will be set up by the Toulouse club for its Tricolores.
Lacombe: “How to better live this period of duplication…”
But this turnover, very present within the Stade Toulousain at the start of the season, was also born of a reflection of the staff during the off-season. He realized that last year, he had pulled too much on the rope with certain elements. “If you arrive in the final phase with guys who have 30 games in their legs and nothing left in the barrel, it won’t work”, dropped the rear coach, Clément Poitrenaud. The idea: not to repeat the same mistakes.
Proposals submitted rebounded this Friday Virgil Lacombe, the assistant coach of the forwards: “This is the assessment that we made of the last season: how to try to end the season with players who are still full of energy. And above all, how to better live this period of duplication, which is consistent for us. Understand by this that Toulouse anticipates the periods without its internationals and wants to have certainties with certain players who will have to ensure the blow at that time. Last year, they had not met expectations, with in particular this series of 6 defeats in the league, which had not happened to the club for at least 60 years.
Do not do as in Pau
“We are really looking to integrate a few more young players, to rotate our workforce more, and our group also allows it. We don’t send players to fire in Montpellier, far from it”, wishes to specify Virgile Lacombe, who assures that the aligned team will have the look “and the weapons to try to compete against THE big one in the championship of the moment. “.
But without some internationals, it had not been a great success for Toulouse during the trip to Pau (Marchand and Lebel were rested). Peato Mauvaka had in particular railed on the investment of the team and a lack of respect towards the Béarnais. “Rotating the workforce and putting little commitment into it are two different things,” retorts Lacombe. And Toulouse also knows where he is stepping: “We are going to measure up to what is best in the Top 14 at the moment”. And even if the Rouge et Noir will have a few absentees, this poster is nonetheless the clash between the first 2 of the Top 14 at the dawn of this 5e daytime.
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