Le jour où Mike Tadjer s’est pris pour Ronaldo face aux Fidji
Au moment où le Portugal va disputer la finale du rugby Europe Championship face à la Géorgie au stade Jean-Bouin à Paris le 17 mars, Mathieu Bastareaud a convié son ami Mike Tadjer à deviser dans le sixième épisode du BastaShow, en exclusivité sur la chaîne YouTube de RugbyPass FR.
L’ancien international du Portugal, retraité depuis le début de l’année, est revenu longuement sur l’aventure du Portugal sur le chemin de la Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2023, posant les fondations d’un avenir à construire.
« Quand j’ai commencé avec eux (la sélection du Portugal, ndlr), c’était digne de Fédérale 3. Que ce soit en termes d’entraînement, d’intensité, de structure… On s’entraînait à 21h. C’était très compliqué », explique l’ancien talonneur Mike Tadjer (34 ans, 34 sélections).
« Pendant un moment j’ai arrêté d’y aller à cause de ça. Sportivement c’était compliqué. Tu passes d’un rythme pro à ça. Quand Patrice (Lagisquet) est revenu, il m’a rappelé, il a mis les bases et ça a été une aventure incroyable pendant quatre ans avec des hauts et des bas, pour finir avec un très haut avec la Coupe du Monde. »
Une qualification aux forceps
La Coupe du Monde a été possible lors du tournoi de qualification à Dubaï en novembre 2022. « La qualification était un scénario de ouf », sourit celui qui vient de racheter un club de plage à Saint-Cyprien, près de Perrpignan.
« On gagne les deux premiers matchs assez facilement contre Hongkong et le Kenya. Et Patrice nous dit la semaine des Etats-Unis que ça peut se jouer sur un match nul parce qu’on a mis plus d’essais.
« Le match se déroule, on mène un peu, ils passent devant et les cinq dernières minutes on obtient la pénalité. Sam (Marques, ndlr) la met sans trembler et on revient à 16-16. Qualification sur un match nul à Dubaï. J’en ai des frissons. C’est quelque chose de fort pour nous.
« Des grands moments, je n’en ai pas vécu énormément. Mais là, c’est quelque chose dont tu te rappelles toute ta vie. »
Le jeu au pied de Tadjer
Le reste de la Coupe du Monde de Rugby France 2023 appartient à l’histoire grâce à Lagisquet. « Le jeu qu’on a produit, c’est grâce à lui. Les lancements de jeu qui fonctionnaient c’est parce qu’il y bossait depuis dix jours », affirme Tadjer qui revient sur ce dernier match de la poule C incroyable contre les Fidji, une victoire historique (24-23) le 8 octobre 2023 à Toulouse.
« Pour nous, ce match était incroyable. Eux ils sont peut-être arrivés un peu tranquilles parce qu’ils étaient quasiment qualifiés, ils n’avaient besoin que d’un point. Nous, on jouait le dernier match de notre vie », raconte l’auteur d’un coup de pied qui restera à jamais dans les mémoires.
« Je peux te le dire, on est issu de cités, on fait du foot depuis tout petit », raconte-t-il en rigolant à Bastareaud. « Avant que l’arrière perce un peu et joue au pied, je fais une passe et je me fais plaquer. Je mets deux heures à me relever. Ça part.
« Je n’étais pas encore relevé à 40 mètres derrière et l’arrière des Fidji retape, je regarde derrière moi, je ne vois personne. Détresse, semblant d’accélération. C’était soit ça, soit je tentais un mauvais tchick-tchak que je ne sais pas faire face à un Fidjien qui allait me fumer, qui allait me découper en deux. Pour moi, la seule option était de jouer au pied. »
Bastareaud jubile : « T’es au niveau de Cristiano Ronaldo en termes de légende du sport portugais ! »
Comments on RugbyPass
What ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
128 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
128 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
128 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
128 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
128 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
128 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
128 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
128 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
128 Go to commentsHo hum.
128 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
128 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
128 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
128 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
128 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
128 Go to commentsBen, nobody gets fooled anymore by selective and biased data to support an hypothesis. Games are decided on such small margins these days that you win some and lose some, and dominance is a thing of the rugby past. Look at the RWC circle of fortune…. Ireland beats SA who beat France who beat NZ who beat Ireland. And so it goes on. Match officials help to eliminate real indiscretions. If they had been with us years before, no doubt results would have been different. Remember Andy Haden’s dive from a lineout in 1978 for which a match-wining penalty was awarded? Wales should have beaten the ABs that day. They took the loss like the gentlemen they were.
128 Go to commentsWith all the analysis and how good the all blacks were.The fundamental mistake with the ABs is that this is a test match and not an exhibition.There is no better team(country) in world rugby than the Boks that knows how to win a test match(we are post masters at this).We know our rules, we have the discipline, we tackle like beasts, we take our points and we never give up.I now have educated the ABs supporters(at least say thank you).Please stop “bitching” , accept what the outcome is and move along swiftly.
128 Go to comments