The president of Racing 92, Jacky Lorenzetti, and his successor, Laurent Travers, gave a long interview to Figaro. During which the two men discussed their way of working for recruitment. “I do not choose the recruits, assured us Jacky Lorenzetti. I record the choices of Laurent and Stuart (Lancaster, the future coach of Racing, editor’s note). What Laurent Travers confirms: “We exchanged three and Mr. Lorenzetti validated according to the balance of the Salary cap. Financial management is his domain. It has always been very clear and very framed for ten years…”
Regarding the position of opener – Scottish star Finn Russell has signed with English club Bath and Fijian Ben Volavola’s contract will not be extended – the two men assured that the recruitment of a new big name ( after Sexton, Lambie, Carter, Russell…) was not on the agenda. “We are lucky to have two young people in 10, Tristan Tedder, whom we recruited (from Perpignan, editor’s note), and Antoine (Gibert). We want to trust them.” An option validated by Stuart Lancaster.
Also questioned about the departures, in recent seasons, of several players trained at the club, they justified this choice. “The difficulty is that we trained a lot of good players at the same time, recalls Laurent Travers. We had an exceptional generation. And we will continue to work for the future generation to be as good. But when so many good players arrive at the same time, with legitimate sporting and financial objectives, it was impossible to increase everyone if we wanted to keep the Salary Cap. So we had to make choices.”
An explanation supported by Jacky Lorenzetti. “Teddy Baubigny (Toulon) and Yoan Tanga (La Rochelle), for example, left for salary offers of almost double what we could offer them. It’s more of a money choice on their part. But these departures confirm that we are right to focus on training. We must continue to train good players because we still get caught. And if we want to stay in the nails of the Salary cap…”
