Former international Frédéric Michalak will take the reins of the back lines of Racing 92, where he intends to adapt “the vision” of new coach Stuart Lancaster to the attacking game of the Ile-de-France club, he explained to AFP upstream of the Sport Unlimited trade show, of which he is the president.
The former opening half (40 years old, 77 caps) signed up from July 1 for three seasons with the Sky and White, who finished the Top 14 in fifth place.
“I was contacted by Stuart Lancaster and we hooked up pretty quickly. I think that my different experiences, at XV, VII or XIII in Australia, as well as in different clubs, pleased him and it was also the right time to get started, ”he explained to AFP , upstream of the first Parisian stage, from Thursday to Saturday, of his company. Sport Unlimitech aims to strengthen the links between the world of new technologies and high-level sport.
Lancaster, from the Irish province of Leinster, with whom he won a Champions Cup title in 2018 and reached two finals in 2019 and 2022, will replace at the head of Racing Laurent Travers, future chairman of the management board of the Ile-de-France club.
“Jacky Lorenzetti (the president of Racing, editor’s note), Laurent Travers but also Yannick Nyanga (in charge of hopes, editor’s note), whom I have known since the Toulouse stadium, sold me the club well, a historic club, so I I hooked up straight away,” he said.
“We are going to try to do the best attacking but also defensive rugby, because to attack well, you must also defend well”, he said, aware that Racing, whose last title dates back to 2016 and which must “aim high”, has “a lot of ambition”.
“My job will be to bring the maximum of skills and knowledge to the players so that they take a lot of pleasure, he explained. Afterwards, you have to give me time to arrive, to observe”.
Between now and the club’s takeover in mid-July, Frédéric Michalak will devote himself to Sport Unlimitech, which has taken up residence near the Eiffel Tower for three days, between conferences, events and “networking” spaces around the questions of the innovation in sports.
“I have always been passionate about new technologies, confided the former player of the XV of France. I saw them arrive in rugby with GPS (…) then connected mouth guards”.
Before specifying its objective: “to bring together worlds that do not know each other and never meet”, to find out “how we will practice the sport of tomorrow”.
