For the first time in his young career, Max Spring, the rear – revelation of the Ile-de-France last season – will find one of his training clubs, during the match Aviron Bayonnais – Racing 92. He who played 14 matches (14 starts) for four tries scored in 2021-2022 and already a first tenure during the victory against Castres for the first day of Top 14. And for Irulegiar, who started at US Nafarroa, this return to the Basque Country is bound to be special. He mentioned it in 100% Rugby on France Bleu Pays Basque.
“Since the beginning of the week, I’ve been excited. I’m now waiting for this match, on Saturday. And precisely, I have to manage to channel myself a little not to play the match before, but it’s sure that it’s t is quite special to come back home and play in front of my family and all my friends. Coming to Bayonne at the start of the season, I’m not sure it’s the easiest window to win a match. which goes back to Pro D2, especially with the friendly matches they made and the match in Toulon they delivered. We are not expecting an easy match and we will have to go step by step to win it.”
On his meteoric rise : “I did not expect it to go so quickly. Afterwards, I seized the opportunity in the second half of the season and in important matches, because there were injuries. And while playing at Racing, it’s sure that we have more visibility than in other clubs in the championship. I made my decision by saying to myself ‘I want to succeed at the highest level’ and I knew that joining Racing was going to allow me to confront myself at the highest level. And for the France team, it was a huge surprise. To first be part of the adventure with the Barbarians and I suspected in the process that if I was serious, that I achieved good things and that I seized the perch which was stretched out to me, in these conditions I doubted that I would have a chance to be part of the group for the tour in Japan. It is sure that once we have tasted the France team, we want to go back there, to wear this blue jersey with all the other great players who are part of this team. Whether at the World Cup or even for the November tour or the Six Nations tournament. Obviously, it’s in the back of my mind, but I don’t want to rush. I know it will go through a very good season with the club.”
The career stoppage of Virimi Vakatawa for medical reasons. “It was really bad news at the start of the week, especially since we weren’t expecting it too much, but to see Virimi in a meeting on Monday, when he explained to us what he had, the situation in which he finds himself, the fact that he stops his career, at this level… the players were a little shocked. In the afternoon, the group gathered around Virimi, to spend time together. We didn’t didn’t even do training in the evening. It’s terrible, it’s also the kind of misfortune that makes us measure how lucky we are to be able to be on the ground all week long. And at the same time, we take aware of the importance of the double project, with studies. We sometimes have a tendency to neglect this aspect and to think only of rugby. This news puts our feet on the ground.
His brother, Tom (twin of Sam, who plays for Nafarroa), started pro last weekend with Aviron Bayonnais. “We are eighteen months apart and he plays in the same position as me, explains the Racingman. We talk a lot. I try to pass on all the advice that I can receive here at Racing or in the French team, even if I know that in Bayonne the coaches rather think of using it on the wing. And before this match, we avoided getting into trouble, which we didn’t fail to do this summer. But there, let’s say it’s more dangerous for whoever loses on Saturday.”
– SG
What did you remember from this victory against Castres? “Against Castres, it was four points that had to be taken at home, especially against a team which is very hard to play. They made it to the final Top 14 last season, it’s not for nothing. On the content, we still used a lot of footwork, but it was our strategy. It’s something that last year we tended to neglect from time to time and it’s good to win with a different strategy than last season.”
► REPLAY of Max Spring’s interview (12 minutes), HERE
The probable XV of Bayonne against Racing: Germain – Jacquelain, Maqala, Buliruarua, Baget – (o) Lopez, (m) Rouet – Heguy, Cassiem, Marchois (c) – Ceyte, Leindekar – Tatafu, Bosch, Cormenier. Probable replacements: Acquier, Perchaud, Mikautadze, Huguet, Ruru, Robertson, Lestrade, Cotet.
– Charly Triballeau