Complicated season for Lyon supporters. Whether in football with OL or in rugby with LOU. If the footballers managed to escape from the red zone in Ligue 1, the rugby players are plunging dangerously towards the bottom of the ranking in Top 14. This weekend, they completely collapsed on the pitch of Bordeaux-Bègles, suffering a scathing 46-10, six tries in the bag. For the twelfth defeat in a row in Gironde since 2008. “Our objective was to capitalize and continue what we showed in the Champions Cup (29-28 success against the South African Bulls, Editor’s note) . We took a nice slap,” Rhone manager Fabien Gengenbacher could only observe.
Only twelfth in the ranking, LOU is far from its ambitions at the start of the season. And the standing that he had managed to acquire by playing in two semi-finals of the Top 14 in 2018 and 2019. A beautiful image which had already been damaged with two 9th places in 2021 and 2022. And a decline which continues this season. The Rhone residents have in fact won only four of their twelve matches this season, only three in the league. Friday, the red card inflicted on international second row Romain Taofifenua completely precipitated the fall of a team lacking confidence and benchmarks, which had nevertheless managed to lead the score after Vincent Rattez’s good try. “We took the red and after that, we completely sank,” confirms Fabien Gengenbacher. We have to stay together and look forward even if we are in a difficult situation.”
And the technician who arrived from Grenoble this season to replace Xavier Garbajosa added on this chronic excitement: “These are things identified, on which we have worked. But we need to be more resilient. It’s not because there are fourteen of us that we can’t secure a ruck. It’s not normal for the nine to have to take cigar shots to recover a ball…” With seven defeats in ten Top 14 matches, the LOU had no longer experienced such a black record at this stage of the season. , since his first rise to the elite in 2011. The Lyon manager does not see the face: “Now we have to accept the place where we are in the ranking, agree to talk about maintaining, agree to talk about a crucial match. We have three days to accept it.”
The arrival of Montpellier already promises to be momentous. Especially since the MHR is on a completely opposite dynamic: after a disastrous start, the Héraultais – now led by Bernard Laporte and the new staff of Patrice Collazo – have finally found the path to victory, by signing two successes in the Champions Cup (Newcastle and Ospreys) then another against Bayonne. Under pressure, Lyon – undermined by several absences due to injuries, notably that of Léo Berdeu – is moving forward into the unknown. And the start of the year promises to be more complicated with a trip, on January 6, to the pitch at Stade Toulousain. The maintenance operation has indeed begun for the LOU.