Clermont wants to go back to find the heights

Having been a model for stability, ASM Clermont Auvergne broke the rule for a few months. The Auvergne club announced that it was effectively eliminated from the race for the last stages of the top fourteen and in the difficulty of searching for the top 8 (qualifying the eighth for the next edition of the Champions Cup), the Auvergne club actually changed its coach during the season. Change of president and departure of several executives.

Since the organization of the tournament in its current format in 2005, ASM has played in the final stage thirteen times. the Jaunards It is even the second team to accumulate the most points in the standings, behind Goals Toulouse. But this season, for the second year in a row, the Auvergne club is supposed to miss the big meeting. Saturday in Bayonne, the men of Christophe Aureus, who arrived in January on the bench of Clermont, can still save their season, keeping hope of winning a ticket to the “big” European Cup next season.

Two turbulent conversion markets

Meanwhile, the 2022-2023 season turned into the second transitional year in a row after the departure of CEOs Camille Lopez (Bayonne) and Morgan Parra (French Stadium), last summer, before they were announced during the tournaments of players such as Arthur Etruria. (Bayonne), Damien Benaud (Bordeaux-Béglés) and Judiciel Cancoret (La Rochelle). So the post-World Cup season will look like something new. To carry out the restructuring of the club that intends to question itself at all levels, Jean-Claude Bats, Michelin’s personnel director who will continue to exercise this function, has been appointed as the new president.

At age 63, he will take over the reins of ASM at 1^any June to replace Jean-Michel Guillon, who has been in his position for three years at the helm of a club long seen as innovative, but whose consistency in recent years has seen him lose ground to his rivals both sporting and structural. Benoit Vaz (48), who has headed the club’s money management business and project manager since January, should soon be appointed general manager. He’s one of the tough guys in the revival project, along with Bates. He had been asked, four months earlier, by Guillon to carry out an audit with the aim of reorganizing and modernizing the club’s various services and developing the brand around its sporting and economic environment.

Succession as a driving force

Sporting development director Didier Ritier, along with Christophe Aureus who replaced Juno Gibbs in January, is involved in a manoeuvre to reorganize the workforce. Oreos, who will bring his team back to UBB, will rely on training at home as well as relying on experienced recruits such as opener Benjamin Urdabileta (Castres), Argentine third line Marcos Kremer (French Court) and New Zealander Beta Gus Soakola (Chiefs ), the hooker. Australian Folau Fainga’a (Western Force) or Montpellier Mohamed Hawass’ Pillar.

Scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, opener Gabin Michet, on loan at the end of the season to Nevers (Pro D2), or even third-row Killian Tixeront representing the next generation. Now, the goal is to double or even triple all placements. Along with future sporting ambitions to return to national and European prominence by 2025, the new management will also have to focus on restoring ASM’s image, which has recently been tarnished by affairs surrounding the concussions suffered by Alexandre Labandre and Sebastien Fahamahaina.

The two players, to whom Canadian Jamie Cudmore should be added, took to the media to challenge their medical support after they had to end their careers.

Bayonne – ASM Clermont, this Saturday (5pm)