Top 14 – Claremont tensions, Gibbs under pressure

We must not have been laughing at the crowd this week in the offices of the Stade Marcel-Michelin! From Monday morning it was necessary to manage the diplomatic incident created by Volvic, a historic company from Puy-de-Dôme and no less historic partner of ASMCA, which shortly after Clermont-Toulouse on Sunday evening congratulated on Twitter its ambassador Antoine Dupont .. For his huge victory the previous day over Jaunards (13-32). The post was quickly deleted after causing an outcry from still-bruised Auvergne fans.

Then Tuesday, the leaders had to record the resignation of a piece of furniture, Xavier Sadorny, three-quarter coach at the club for 9 years. An immediate-impact departure for the former Claremont-trained No. 10 player, which the interested party justified in the wake of La Montagne’s newspaper as “fatigue and a strange feeling with the players”. Like a knife to the eternal set that lives well, agitated at will against winds and tides with every storm.

We will not accept the outpouring of hate and insults.

On Thursday it was finally necessary to pull the short straw to find out which contact person would write the press release condemning the minority of supporters who crossed the yellow line on Sunday in Michelin, with the art and especially the manner of not placing themselves a little more behind all the others.

“Like you, the entire club cannot be satisfied with the team’s sporting performance. Thus we can hear your reprimands, your disappointment, your anger and even your whistles. But we will not accept the outpouring of hate and insults from a very small minority of people whom we will never recognize as supporters let alone the members of the Yellow Army who Made us proud for decades.

The booming years of the era of René Fontes (2004-2013) and Eric de Cromière (2013-2020), the only bosses to return the Brennus shield to Judy’s place, seem a little far-fetched. The club dubbed “Polydor Rugby” is now behind the group, not far behind Grupetto (only 6 points ahead of the 13th).

The first guarantor of his team’s results, Jono Gibbs inevitably finds himself in the crossfire, as he could have been for any other coach of a team of this level with only 27 points after 14 days of the championship (the club’s worst mid-season record since the expansion to 14 days). clubs in 2006).

Victory in seven days

The current momentum of one victory in the final seven days of the tournament plunges the New Zealand technician into an awkward position. “I would not put so many euros on the maintenance of Gibbs” so left this theme which our adviser Jean-Baptiste Lafond draws in Lafond, the day after the sinking off Toulouse.

On Saturday, the ASMCA receives the Red Lanterns of Perpignan with maximum pressure, in a match already marked by nervousness. Even at a club traditionally reluctant to change during the season, a fresh setback against the Catalans is likely to move the more steadfast lines.