All Bayonnais agreed to offer themselves their most successful win of their season. Over 80 minutes they recited their lesson to perfection. The…
All Bayonnais agreed to offer themselves their most successful win of their season. Over 80 minutes they recited their lesson to perfection. The plan was simple: stop the steamroller before it started. Except worn on the ball from the 5e minute, it never started. Because at all costs, and very low, the Blues and Whites have tackled another well-known target. “We’ve been packing barrels all afternoon,” Lopez laughs. They run all over you. But we were confronted. It was an important point of the game. »
“We mastered our craft and the La Rochelle machine had no plan B”
There was another, just as precious. The spades of number 10, Maxime Machenaud and Gaëtan Germain, has constantly sent the Maritimes back to their camp. One stat says it all: Grégory Patat’s tire hit the equivalent of 1.29km of kicks in the game. In comparison, the Rochelais were satisfied with 825 meters. “We had a strategy in place, especially on occupying the pitch with deep foot play, to be able to push them back,” said the manager. In the absence of Hastoy and Dulin, it was known that only Kerr-Barlow could react remotely in this game. We had mastered our subject and the La Rochelle machine had no plan B. It didn’t go too bad. The technician uses understatement.
Lopez caviar
Apart from the offensive touches, returning black spot and too arbitrary possession, almost everything worked. Quickly get back to the score thanks to the essential Sireli Maqala (10e), the Basques then took the score thanks to the foot of Gaëtan Germain, author of 19 points. They then showed a rare quality for a promoted, but ever-present since the 1d day: efficiency. They therefore drove the point home after returning from the locker room, with two attempts in quick succession (43e45e).
Each time, Camille Lopez’s foot made the difference. On the first he even handed out his fourth assist on foot since the start of the season. No one fared better in the Top 14. The left-hander even offered himself the luxury of making it with the right. A fake pass to suck up the defence, a safe flat foot’ and the rebound that goes well in Gaëtan’s hands. It’s a kick ass! » jokes the author. Given the repetition in the success of the gesture for two months, it is quite the opposite.
Top 14. Aviron Bayonnais: Camille Lopez, a crazy diagonal
It’s his signature, his “special”, even if he denies it. Since the start of the season, Mauléon’s opening half has offered three tries to his Bayonne teammates on cross stairs to the other wing
“Camille can see spaces and give caviar to her friends in a very small space, Patat appreciates. He came for a project: to grow rowing. He is 100% committed to this task. Like his achievements, he makes the team grow, his teammates. It is not unimportant, this notion of pragmatism that we develop at the slightest opportunity. We are lucky to have him. He is a great leader. Now he had good soldiers by his side. So much so that Aviron’s success was recorded long before the final whistle for the first time in the year.
Fries silence the skeptics
More than the third win on home soil, it is the opponent’s pedigree that magnifies Bayonne’s success. It doesn’t change the objective – maintenance – but says something about the marrow of this group. “I’m proud of our three wins, but this one confirms all the work at the start of the season,” said the manager. In terms of content, we grew up today (next Saturday). I blamed the boys for not having enough confidence in their abilities and they began to draw on their last resources. We may have sent out a small signal: that it would be complicated to come and win with us. »
“I had no revenge, except maybe with a certain person, but that’s all”
Sent him several personally. His coherent and polished six-match project has so far silenced skeptics about his appointment as manager of a Top 14 club. Beating his former team with a perfectly worked out strategy, Grégory Patat has also found himself a little gluttonous. offered. “I have friends on the other team. I had no revenge, except maybe with a certain person, but that was all. “Usually very loud in the stands, Ronan O’Gara was quiet the whole second half. The coach he no longer wanted in La Rochelle has succeeded in everything. Even leaving Camille Lopez a minute before the end so he gets the ovation he deserves.