Lyon’s New Zealand opener Lima Sopoaga, leaving for Japan, told AFP on Tuesday that manager Xavier Garbajosa, sacked on Monday after a Top 14 season marred by tensions with his locker room , “should have been earlier”.
“It’s done now and I’m very happy for the club, for the guys who are still there, because the environment hasn’t been great for a good part of the season. It’s better for everyone,” said Sopoaga. “There was no coach-player relationship,” he said. “Look at La Rochelle for example, the relationship the players have with Ronan O’Gara, the way they say good things about him and vice versa. It was not the same here”.
Selected 16 times with the All Blacks between 2015 and 2017, the 32-year-old opening half played for two seasons at LOU. The first under the orders of Pierre Mignoni, who has since gone to Toulon, then with Garbajosa, who only used him sparingly, as a backup for the young Léo Berdeu. “If he wants to continue coaching, I think Garbajosa has to learn to build a relationship with his players,” Sopoaga said. “He played in another era, things have changed since.”
Triple champion of France (1997, 1999 and 2001) and double champion of Europe (2003 and 2006) with Toulouse, the former international rear (32 selections) was sacked Monday at the end of the first of his three years of contract. The LOU had however finished the regular phase of the Top 14 in third place before losing in the last minutes in the play-off against Bordeaux-Bègles (32-25). “This decision must make it possible to guarantee the sports group the necessary serenity”, justified the Lyon club, which is giving itself the time to find a successor.
