Fifteen matches, fifteen defeats, two unfortunate points in the standings, 188 points scored against 570 conceded. Le SU Agen is currently experiencing the worst season in its history: a sixteenth setback Saturday in Top 14 facing the twelfth, Montpellier (5.45 p.m.), would send the Agen club into the Guinness Book of Records, erasing Usap from the shelves, which had had to wait for the 16th day during the 2018/19 season to finally win against… Montpellier (28-10)!
It was one of the only two successes of the season for the Catalans, unsurprisingly relegated to Pro D2.
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The 2020/21 SUA is not really under any illusion either. We are looking more towards next season. This is a white season, which started very badly since we were the first club to be affected by the Covid. For more than two weeks, at the end of July, we could not prepare normally. We had to completely stop our preparation. This is not the only reason for our failure but it did not help our start to the championship.
, explained President Jean-François Fonteneau to AFP.
Resounding defeats
The following ? Stinging defeats (71-5 against Bordeaux-Bègles, 63-18 and 59-0 against Toulouse, 45-10 against Racing 92…) but also sixteen yellow cards, two reds and the blatant resignation of some players. I would be lying if I said that we are not all very disappointed and very frustrated. It’s been a tough season
, regretted the former Irish international Noel Reid.
We had a lot of injuries among important players, a change of staff quite early in the season… There were disruptions but these are not excuses: the team, in general, is not quite ready. made at the Top 14 level
, also gauged the opener arrived this summer from Leicester.
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Smaller budget in the championship, the eight-time French champion club is thus locked in a negative spiral, which culminated in mid-December with a brawl in an airport between two alcoholic players returning from a European Challenge match.
The two offending players were laid off but the wife of one of them, hooker Paul Ngauamo, does not even wait for the verdict and sells her husband’s jerseys on Facebook.
A year of famine
A few weeks later, the flagship rookie, England winger Gabriel Ibitoye, was released. It is often the life of the clubs except that, concerning us, all these things have been revealed in broad daylight. When everything is going well in a club, these are less marked situations. But there are always a little tense situations, it’s group life… there, everything has been brought to light. And things have piled up
, says Fonteneau.
The arrival in November of Régis Sonnes, former deputy of Ugo Mola in Toulouse, did not change much in terms of results. The black series continues and the SUA has not won since February 22, 2020 in Brive (30-16).
Almost a year without tasting victory, it is not pleasant
, over Fonteneau, but we have other challenges, other ambitions today …
We are launching our new stadium, our new performance center. We moved on to something else. It’s not very pleasant but the goal is to finish correctly, so that the players, for those who will stay, can prepare properly for next season.
, promises the president of the SUA.
For Agen, tomorrow is still a long way off.
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