The "Pink Soldier" must be saved. With barely ten points in as many days of the French rugby championship, the Stade Français cannot manage to fall from last place in the Top 14.
Before receiving Pau, Sunday December 22 (at 12:30 p.m.), the club with fourteen Brennus shields aspires to relaunch a seized machine since the start of the season. At the risk of a very bad surprise at the end of the journey.
Six points from the barragiste, Agen, the teammates of the international Paul Gabrillagues are "In the heart of the storm". They must find their marks in a largely renewed institution.
After placing former player Thomas Lombard at the helm of the club in mid-October, the Swiss owner, Hans-Peter Wild, chose to part with South African coach Heyneke Meyer, whose speech was no longer heard in the group. It's the task of a duo of alumni, Julien Arias and Laurent Sempéré, to raise the glove.
"The break had become a ditch, recounts Thomas Lombard, who left his job as a rugby observer and TV consultant in the face of the sports emergency at his former club. And when there is so much disagreement between a group and its coach, there is no way out. " Otherwise one "Brutal rupture to create a rebound", leaving the hand to two “Very recent alumni, very connected with the group. "
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No electroshock
New to their post – Arias retired when he took over the reins of the club, and Sempéré at the end of last season – the two men did not hesitate when Thomas Lombard offered them the arduous mission of saving the club.
"We haven't thought about it. The staff left on a Monday, and on Tuesday there was training, evokes Julien Arias. So we had to immediately focus on daily management. " If they admit themselves embarked on "A crazy adventure", the two neo-retirees of the fields ensure their group, which they know on the end of the crampons, capable of reversing the trend.
“Our main goal was to make the players aware of the seriousness of the situation. Then give them a breath of fresh air ", extends former hooker Laurent Sempéré.
Since the changes, which took place in November, it has to be said that the electroshock has not taken place. In any case on the ground, where the club conceded four new defeats, for a victory since the duo Arias – Sempéré takes the helm.
There is a better way to start a rescue operation. But these results remain to be qualified: four of these meetings concerned the Challenge Cup, the "little European Cup" which is no longer a priority for a club seeing the iceberg approaching relegation.
"Improvement in attitudes"
If he finds "An improvement in attitudes", Thomas Lombard, recognizes a stagnation in terms of results. And sounds the alert: “We win matches on details, on precision, but for the moment, we have to find a killer side. "
"We feel that the team is starting to evolve positively", underlines Laurent Sempéré. But, like his partner, he expects results, from the match against Pau, to concretize the work accomplished. "We need points, now we don't have the luxury of calculating or choosing our matches. "
The return of global players, not yet visible in the league, could bring "A breath of fresh air" to their teammates, asphyxiated by the start of the season. Paul Gabrillagues is one of those players who saw Japan. The second French line has found its club “In a necessarily complicated situation, we are last. "
But he did not land in a crisis of which he was unaware, remaining in contact with his teammates since the World Cup in Japan. He also says to himself "Optimistic" in view of the game produced on the ground. "It’s much better, today we feel that everyone is concerned. "
For the time being, the French Stadium, whose Swiss owner aspired on arrival in 2017, to make it " the best in the world ", refuses to project itself – at least publicly – towards a relegation, whose hypothesis is no longer a distant chimera.
"The survival of the club is not in danger in the event of a descent", hammers Thomas Lombard. But it’s a "Pitfall on which one should not stumble, insists the general manager. Just because you have the privilege of having an owner like Doctor Wild doesn't mean you have to be safe from everything. "
"This club is a bit of a roller coaster"
The consequences of relegation would be disastrous. Starting with a talent drain, almost inevitable – most players have a clause allowing them to break their contract in the event of a descent. But between TV rights, affluence or sponsors, everything would be revised downwards, while, for the second year in a row, the club closed the 2018-2019 season on a record deficit (17 million euros , after 18 million the previous year).
As mid-season looms, the club is not there yet. "We want to train hard and be very young", blows Yoann Maestri. At 31, the Parisian captain lived through the dark decade of the French team, and does not intend to pour out in public. "It's difficult to speak (to the media) because we have no results. " But he says he observes the premises of a change: “We work well; and the fact that the coaches are French facilitates communication. "
To save himself, the "Pink Soldier" will have to adopt the motto of Paris, " fluctuat NEC mergitur " (It is beaten by the waves, but does not sink). Logic for a club "Which is anything but a long quiet river", sums up Julien Arias. And doesn't know the concept of a mundane season. " It could have ended very badly on several occasions, but it never happened ", recalls Thomas Lombard.
From self-management in 2000, behind player coach Fabien Galthié, crowned by an coronation, to the aborted merger with the Ile-de-France rival of Racing 92 in 2017, each year or almost carried its share of adventures. "This club is a bit like a roller coaster, Gabrillagues notes. Very atypical, but also very endearing. "
All hope that the Paris club’s next adventure will not be its first downhill of the professional era. "It will be hard, long, and it will have to be resilient, concludes Yoann Maestri. Do not raise your arms too high or lower them too low. "
