If many internationals made their return on Tuesday in training, some were absent, compulsory holidays. The opener of the Blues Matthieu Jalibert, the Argentinian second row Guido Petti and the Italian center Federico Mori will therefore miss this Sunday’s trip to Racing and will not resume until next week for the reception of the Stade Toulousain.
On the other hand, the Union will be able to count on the Tongan pillar Ben Tameifuna, on the Argentine winger Santiago Cordero and on four players who have participated in recent weeks in the rallies of the XV of France: Maxime Lucu, Romain Buros, Yoram Moefena and Cameron Woki . The latter was to take the vacation right after the tour but asked his manager to apply for the trip to the Arena.
Four weeks to stall the holidays
“It’s an important match for us, explains the Union flanker, it’s a resumption match and as I feel good at the moment, I wanted to stay on this continuity there and postpone my vacation. I am very impatient. As soon as I arrived at training yesterday, I switched back to Racing.“
“It’s a puzzle, plague Christophe Urios, because we are not even able to agree on how we should operate. We have to give them a week of vacation before December 31st and when you know the importance of these periods for the clubs …. We don’t have many weeks since you can’t give Christmas week, nor that of December 31. So we only have four weeks. I do not understand that we cannot smooth it over January and February. “
The UBB had two possibilities: put all its internationals on vacation after the series of tests or spread the holidays according to the playing time of each other. It is this second option that was chosen, even if it means being disabled later. Because between the trip to Racing and the reception of Toulouse in Top 14, that of Leicester and the trip to the Scarlets in the Champions Cup, the Girondin menu promises to be very generous.
On Sunday, the UBB will therefore appear at the Arena without the Petti-Jalibert-Mori trio. Match that will also be missed by injured players during the recovery phase (Poirot, Marais, Tabidze, Cazeaux, Lachaise) and which will be available next week according to their manager.