Reviled, the European Rugby Cup has been the subject of severe criticism for several weeks. Equity problem with these matches postponed and then canceled, Sébastien Chabal had even declared on Canal + that these European cups do not want “nothing to say anymore and don’t look like anything anymore, so they have to be stopped”. Statements made knowing that Canal+ is not one of the broadcasters.
On the side of CA Brive, we are not of this opinion. This Challenge Cup came at the right time. The Brivistes were out of confidence, their heads in the seal after two and a half months without a victory in the Top 14. Friday evening’s victory against Pau restored “confidence to the group” declared Joris Jurand, the winger, at the end of the game. “It will do good to the head and we will be able to work more calmly from Monday.”
This European parenthesis should allow the CAB to change its mind. No more games of fear for the fight to maintain, Victor Lebas sees a more liberated team: “We’re going to play our card to the fullest, it’s always really interesting also to be able to play perhaps in the final stages. We’re a little bit in difficulty in the Top 14, we have to take advantage of this Challenge Cup. It can be a great adventure.” The Brivistes are currently second in their group.
Give playing time and, perhaps, shake up the hierarchy
This European Cup is also an opportunity to play players who have returned from injury or who have lacked playing time in recent months. Victor Lebas started on the second line on Friday, only his third start since the start of the season. “It’s an opportunity to show up by giving the maximum and to show what we are capable of. It’s true that these are opportunities for us players who are a little less used and to reshuffle the cards for the next one. Top 14 game.”
Friday night, Dylan Lam thus pulled out of the game with a big remarkable performance by coaches including Jeremy Davidson who found him “very very good” for his first appearance with the CA Brive jersey. “Dylan arrived in November as a medical joker and we didn’t want to expose him to the Top 14 directly in a very tough championship. The Challenge Cup is a very good way to get started.”
For Arnaud Méla, one of the CAB coaches, these European matches are not “not to be taken lightly” for those less used players. “We try to play the best, so if we have a player who makes big protests to us, it’s sure that he will put pressure on us again on the holders and on us the coaches.” With the new, more flexible health protocol, in the Top 14, opening the group is not a bad idea either in case of a last minute positive case.
Preparing for the decisive match against Biarritz
All will want scratch a place in the group or in the XV for the match of this beginning of the year : Saturday January 29 at 5 p.m. with the reception of Biarritz red lantern of the Top 14. With the Challenge Cup, the CAB will be able to “Prepare as well as possible for this important meeting” notes Jeremy Davidson. “The Challenge Cup? It will be a kind of springboard to prepare for our match against Biarritz,” says Victor Lebas. “We manage to be diligent, to be disciplined. They may be able to use us as a draft, if I may say so, for the Biarritz match, to be able to prepare for it in the best possible way.”
If the CAB is well launched to get out of the hens of the Challenge Cup, the objective must not be mistaken: that of maintaining in the Top 14. meeting against Edinburgh, first in the Celtic league.
Return from injury
On Friday after the match against Pau, Jeremy Davidson indicated that the injured Thompson-Stringer, Fa’aso’o and Olding will return to training this week and could possibly apply to play against Edinburgh