The world upside down. While many Ile-de-France residents are leaving the Paris region to settle in the Bordeaux metropolis, the UBB has, for its part, made the capital its garden. Already victorious on the lawn of Racing 92 (14-37), the Union gave the cover to Jean-Bouin (18-31), Saturday March 26. With a similar scenario: after a lackluster first period, Bordeaux-Bègles was magnified in the second act, to win quite quietly.
In Paris, the players of Christophe Urios ended a series of five defeats in a row (Toulon, Racing, Toulouse, Pau and Clermont). And the returns of Grand Slam heroes, Cameron Woki and Maxime Lucu, are no strangers to this. The scrum half excelled at the foot, in the current game as in a goal exercise that he is not used to ensuring (6/9). As for Woki, he shone with his incessant activity and offered himself a try (45th) after a race of 47 meters.
It’s over in Jean-Bouin where UBB won against Stade Français! pic.twitter.com/tjj5hLPXGn
—UBB Rugby (@UBBrugby) March 26, 2022
As with the Blues, the formation flanker was placed in the cage. A forced choice for the Girondin manager, undermined by absences (Cazeaux, Douglas, Marais, Petti, Jolmès) in the second line. Judge for yourself: Louis Picamoles, more than 400 pro meetings, played the first match of his career with number 5 on Saturday evening! “He helps out on the second line without any problem to help the club”, greeted his friend Woki. The former French international preferred to laugh at it, at the microphone of Canal +: “I have often been told that it was my favorite job! I had a lot of fun.”
“This victory feels good. We lived through a complicated period, we knew we weren’t far behind, but we needed a victory”, continued Picamoles. We can at least recognize that UBB never panicked on Saturday. Waisea may have tortured the defense twice in the first act, Bordeaux-Bègles was able to be patient in the offensive phases. Pragmatic, too, to attempt distant penalties and drive out his old demons.
The infirmary is gradually emptying, and this is anything but bad news for Christophe Urios. At the bottom of the wave, during the defeat in Toulouse at the end of February (12-11), eight players from the semi-finalist team last year were missing. Top 14 scorer UJ Seuteni returned to training, and finisher Ben Lam returned to Paris. Matthieu Jalibert, Guido Petti and Yoram Moefana should return in April.
These many absences have, at least, had the merit of bringing out some talents. In Jean-Bouin, the funny Gatien Massé and Pierre Bochaton played the 80 minutes, without forgetting Louis Bielle-Biarrey, absent from the sheet but author of remarkable performances in 2022. Christophe Urios is spoiled for choice, at the edge an exciting end to the season, where UBB will face La Rochelle twice in the European Cup in April. But before that, the Girondins will do battle against these same Maritimes, now third, next Saturday.