For his one and only season at Rowing, he could win a title. Jeff Dubois, the Bayonne attack coach will no longer be part of the adventure next season. And for good reason, he will be manager of Dax for the next five years. Before leaving the banks of the Nive, the original Peyrehoradais assumes it, “even if you have come here to Bayonne, you might as well leave through the front door!” with a title at the end, a rise in the elite, during this final of Pro D2, this Sunday, June 5 in Montpellier between Ciel et blanc and Mont-de-Marsan.
Last match with Bayonne?
“This may be my last game with Aviron. I already thought about that with Jean Dauger last week for the semi-final against Oyonnax. We are part of the staff leaving (with Yannick Bru , Ludovic Loustau in particular) and we have a very good atmosphere in the staff. We would therefore like to finish in the best possible way. It is also going very well with the players, with the group so it is true that, even if it means coming here in Bayonne, you might as well leave through the front door with a title. I will be the happiest of men. This will be a new page for Rowing, which will open from next year. But we don’t think about it, we want to finish it in the best possible way, because it’s been hard all season long. We had to collect, collect things and now we are faced with a fait accompli. I think we are where we should be. We wanted to be in the first two, we achieved it, we wanted to be in the final, we are there. Now the icing on the cake is winning this final and getting the title.”
Game reviews
“There are some in all the clubs, it’s not embarrassing. But, even when you win and you don’t play well, you are often criticized a little because you are, supposedly, the team. strongest in the championship. We saw this year that the strongest team was Mont-de-Marsan, they showed it throughout the season. On our side, we tried to build, because the staff hadn’t changed much, but I had just arrived and I still take care of the attack. I also wanted to put my paw and it takes time. And when I said that we have to cash in, yes, we did it quite naturally. And then we have a boss who cashes in for us. Yannick, he took everything on his shoulders and he left us alone. He left me alone, and we were able to build as we went along, over the whole season, to get where we wanted to be. Now nothing is done. The most important thing is this game on Sunday, this final, despite everything we may have said or heard during the regular season. We lost twice and I hope we didn’t lose a third time against.”
On the Montois Rugby Stadium
“Mont-de-Marsan is the favourite, it’s a team that defends very well. The first defense in the championship and the third attack, I believe. fewer penalties and cards. They are very well placed on their kicking game, on their hunting, in defense. This is a team that has been consistent throughout the year. They were predicted that they were going to have a hole and they didn’t. It is a formation, sure of its strengths, of its bases. We will try to get them out of their comfort zone to beat them. We’ll have to play our best rugby against them, which I don’t think we were able to do in the two Pro D2 regular season matches.”
We do not play 50 finals in a career
“It’s a bit off the mark, but a final is different. And it’s good to also have in the team players who have already experienced this, who have experienced finals. You have to succeed in as many things as possible, be clean, ignore the context, the pressure or feed on that. Afterwards, that does not mean that it will tip the scales. And then, it’s also important that the guys become aware of the exceptional nature of the thing. We don’t play 50 finals in a career, we don’t have the opportunity to win titles every year either. So that’s just thinking about that. The main thing on Sunday is play for a citysupporters, a whole region and also going for a title.”