USM forward coach Florent Wieczorek wants to remove the context and focus on the character of his group displayed in Perpignan last Friday.
From the blood and gold of Perpignan, the Montalbanais have moved into the red zone. The USM is indeed penultimate of Pro D2 (with two games less). She faces a team from Soyaux-Angoulême up to date with her meetings, but which is the red lantern (even purple) of the championship. A match not to lose for Florent Wieczorek’s men.
What is your assessment of the last match in Perpignan (6-27)?
You have to take the context, the preparation and not focus on the score. We had three weeks off and two training sessions to prepare for our return to the Aimé-Giral field. We are very happy with the performance of the players, especially on defensive virtues. I even told them that I felt like I had a group of players who wanted to give themselves up for the buddy next door. Things I hadn’t noticed. It is very positive. Now we have to switch. We have several pieces of the puzzle that are very positive over the first five games, we now have to put them in order this weekend.
The focus has changed in a week: moving from the fashion to the result …
It is only the result that counts. No matter how we play, we want to win. Despite the context and the sanitary conditions, it should be ignored even if it is not obvious. We remain focused on our objectives, the construction of the group and the project. Today, everyone wants it to work. We are coming out of a very good week of training. We want to put everything in order to have a good match, consisting of the first to the last minute of the match.
You had 25 players available last week. Did you come back this week?
We collected ten of them, but they returned to the group in a beaded way throughout the week. Some were only able to come back this Wednesday morning… (He quipped) The choice remains for the moment always easy on the composition of the team. But this is not to the detriment of the quality of the players lined up on the pitch tomorrow night.
When we look at the classification, this USM-Soyaux is a duel of poorly classified between the 15th and the 16th. Does the context add extra pressure on your shoulders?
When we look at the ranking in this way, we are poorly classified. But we have to put things in perspective; we have two games less, with a difficult start to the season, teams that have changed very little in recent years. We ignore that. We are focused on our passing goals. We are in the nails. We certainly drag ourselves the defeat against Aurillac like a ball on the foot. That’s how it is, it’s done, too bad. The goal now is to win.
Soyaux-Angoulême is in a very tense situation: coach Adrien Buononato has been replaced by Vincent Etcheto. Can the Charentais, under this shock, create a surprise in Sapiac?
These changes have very little impact on us and our work. We are working on our project. What happens elsewhere, I don’t care. We just want to make a compelling game.
You say that you are in the nails for the moment, taking into account these two postponed matches. Despite everything, there is only one victory on the clock this year. Isn’t that worrying after five games?
No. What is most important to us today is the content, what we do. We knew that it would take a long time to set up this new project. Aurillac is our ball, of course. But if we had not done bullshit against them by losing at home, we would be ten points, in the split times. We have traveled a lot. If you start looking back after six games, it’s really not good for the future. The staff are not worried, neither are the players. We are focused on Friday. We are coming out of a good week of training, we have to make it happen.
Are you already thinking about Nevers and this chain of two home matches that can be tricky?
The very short experience of this season proves to us that we should not think too much about the following match because we do not know under what conditions we will play it. When we prepared Oyonnax, we didn’t expect to be at rest for the next three weeks… Very clearly, we don’t think of Nevers. We are going to play Soyaux and I hope to play it well. And then we will prepare Nevers if we can play it.
Perpignan announced yesterday morning to have nine cases of Covid in its workforce. Are you ready to face a possible new Covid chapter?
We had the results of our tests yesterday morning, they are all negative. So the match will take place tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Final point.
The infirmary is gradually emptying
As for the long-term absentees, we find Fijian winger Epeli Momo, annoyed by his shoulder problems and who should not play by the end of the year. The right pillar Benoit Zanon is still in a “complex” medical situation and has not yet returned to the field. Finally, scrum-half Nic Stirzaker suffers from a shoulder. “He cannot pass, which is rather annoying at his post”, quips Florian Ninard. The other absent sufferers were infected by the Covid.
–
–
