For the past week, the Aviron Bayonnais players have been preparing for the new season in the Top 14. With 18 new players, but also a new general manager, Grégory Patat. Passed by Auch, Perpignan, then La Rochelle, the technician took over from Yannick Bru, who left after four years on the Bayonne bench. Ambitions, recruitment, preparation, game plan: Grégory Patat confides in the coming seasonbefore the first match in Toulon on the first weekend of September.
It’s a new challenge for you here, in a city, a club that you discover. How’s it going ?
It’s going very well. It’s been three weeks since we resumed training with the players and there is an investment from everyone on a daily basis. It’s true that I feel like I’ve known this club for quite some time, there is so much simplicity in terms of the environment and the players. So it was easy for me to get my bearings.
This is the first time that you have been general manager in the Top 14. Are there any apprehensions about this position?
No. Because if I have apprehensions, it will reflect on the group of players. It’s a huge challenge for me and my whole group. When you are a competitor, when you do this job, you aspire to what is bigger. So no, we have a huge challenge. We know that the game will not be easy. We are the club that rises from Pro D2, we are referenced as “the little one”. There are a lot of changes in our team. Now, we will assume this status and we will use our environment to perform.
Does it still imply new responsibilities?
Yes of course. When you are at the head of a club, you have responsibilities. Now, I have surrounded myself with people who complement me, who are competent. I’m not afraid of skills because that’s what makes us shoot up. This is what will make my staff perform, which will change my staff since a project is an alignment of people between management, administration, athletes and players. If there is no alignment, the project is void. And it shows on the field. We have everything to do well and it is up to us to take up this challenge.
Concretely, what will your role be? Do you stay close to the field?
My past as a player has left me a lot of feathers physically, so it does not allow me to animate the collective sessions (laughs). So I’m responsible with Gerard Fraser for the overall game project that we put together. And afterwards, I delegate the touching part to Antoine Battut, the scrum part to Joël Rey and Eric Artiguste will be Gerard’s assistant on the three-quarter part and he will intervene on skills. Now I believe a lot in sharing information, sharing tasks. This is called co-coaching, so that each coach has his own operating corridor and personal development.
Speaking of game project, what will it be?
The deal is simple, it’s quick to win matches. So we take into account the data of modern rugby. Rugby today means having a good base, a good defense, a good conquest and being effective in the transition game. The teams that were in the final this year performed very well in their own scoring areas and in the opposing scoring area. So that is something we took into account because we don’t have time. That’s it, it’s simple, we want to stay in the Top 14, we want to perform, we’re going to give ourselves the means to be there every weekend and so we took this data to go quickly in the strategy planning training sessions.
You were a coach at La Rochelle, with a very powerful front five. Compared to the profile of this team, Bayonne is different. What can we expect?
You see the La Rochelle of recent years, but we forgot the Rochelais of the years when they went up. So it’s a project that is being built. Of course the player profiles are different, but in the collisions of my front five, we will ask different things that we can ask Atonio or Skelton, quite simply. But the goal is either to put in a quick release or to win a collision. But that is up to us to put things in place and put consistency in what we are going to ask the players. If we ask for things that the players don’t know how to do, it will be complicated. It’s doomed.
In the position of right pillar, there are many young people who have not yet experienced the Top 14. Same for Pieter Scholtz, more experienced but who comes from England. Is this a weak point in recruitment?
The straight pillars, the best, if you find any, tell me (laughs). It’s complicated to recruit a right pillar. At present, you have to do it either very early, or you have to have a significant financial margin. Me, I don’t judge. For example Tevita Tatafu, he was with the hopes last year, and he performed in Pro D2 to establish himself as the starting pillar in Rowing. Why wouldn’t he be a titular pillar in Top14? Don’t just look at CVs. Reality is on the green rectangle. We’ll see. We have five straight pillars. Admittedly they don’t have experience, they don’t have a business card, but for me that doesn’t change anything. We’ll see. If we get crushed, we’ll talk about it.
How is the preparation organised?
We adapt to the temperatures, for example we had to cancel the rugby session this afternoon (Monday July 18) because of the heat wave. We set up two or even three rugby sessions a day. The first cohesion, we want to do it on the ground. We begin a five-week phase which will gradually increase in intensity and volume, so that two weeks before the resumption, we can be discharged. There will also be the internship, with the traditional integration of players, but it will be more rugby than “cohesion”. Today, I repeat, our first cohesion will be on the pitch, and we have to win matches quickly to validate all the work that has been put in place.
Have you set up a roadmap, with accounting objectives?
Already we are going to focus on ourselves, that we have maximum control over our game, that we master our game and that we know how to impose it from one weekend to the next. The reality is that we are the small team and all the teams that aspire to the Top 6 will want to come and win here because a team that loses points with the promoted can lose a qualification in the top six. And it’s true that if we analyze the calendar, there may be teams that will be in the same category as us. But as I say, we are not going to spoil any match. We are competitors, we have to give ourselves the means to be present every weekend and regardless of the players who will be lined up. We must have match content that will allow us to progress from weekend to weekend.
In relation to the group, is everyone operational? There are no injuries?
There we train with a group of 35 players daily. There are a few guys who are in the infirmary who are in rehabilitation. There is no serious injury, but there are small sores to manage. We are still far from the competition, there will be a gradual return to training on the part of these players. But overall, it’s a classic start to the season squad. On the other hand, something which was perhaps not classic in the environment of the club, it is the internationals because there, today, we miss Rémy Baget, Matis Perchaud, Torsten Van Jaarsveld and the two Georgians (Konstantine Mikautadze and Lado Chachanidze). It’s the extra players we need.
We will have to choose, if it has not already been done, a new captain. Have you already chosen a player?
No, we will discuss it with the players a little later.