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Top 14 2020/21 club-by-club season preview: Bordeaux
It’s a stretch to say Bordeaux would probably have won the 2019/20 Top 14 season – there were, after all, nine rounds of the regular season and the play-offs to go. It’s not a stretch to say they were, week-in week-out, the best side in the Top 14. There’s no reason not to expect more of the same in this campaign.
Key signing
Joseph Dweba. All respect to the outlandishly talented Ben Lam, but the try-loving hooker could turn out to be the Top 14 signing of the season – and he opened his account as part of a pushover collective a minute from the final whistle of the opening match of preseason. An honourable mention is deserved, though, for Lam. Bordeaux, already scary, are going to be terrifying.
Key departure
Semi Radradra. No side – not even one that has recruited and retained as well as Bordeaux – could escape losing Radradra unscathed. Frankly if he’d opted to stay at Chaban-Delmas rather than head to Bristol it would be best to give Bordeaux next season’s Top 14 title and pre-qualify them for the Champions Cup quarters.
They say
“If I don’t use them, it’s a skill issue. When I went to Bordeaux, I saw the profile of the team, what the players are capable of doing. With Jalibert or Botica, who are very offensive, if I do not get them to attack, I am the king of idiots” (Head coach Christophe Urios, francetvsport)
We say
It was one of the great mysteries of the Top 14 – how a side as full of individual talent as Bordeaux could not even finish in the play-off places, let alone challenge for the title. Under Raphael Ibanez, Jacques Brunel and Rory Teague – and then under the interim charge of Joe Worsley – they were a side that flattered to deceive.
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The answer, it turned out, was simple. There was no team culture, no identity to speak of. That has been Christophe Urios’s great coaching trick. Identify and latch on to a culture and build a team spirit. He did it at Oyonnax. He did it at Castres. And he’s doing it at Bordeaux.
Bordeaux cultural creator
Only at Bordeaux, he first had to create a culture because, bizarrely, there was none. The one he’s created is based around good living, family and enjoyment. And that’s what drives Bordeaux’s ambitious, attacking, joyous rugby now.
Interestingly, the style he developed at Bordeaux is very different from the workmanlike, no-frills ones he made a virtue at Castres and Oyonnax. That worked at both clubs – players and their fans bought into the work ethic, team first thing.
It would have been easy for him to take that and work it into the Bordeaux system. That he didn’t – that he saw the team he had and adopted his planning to their strengths – is testament to him as a coach. There is no such thing Urios-ball.
Attacking style
At Bordeaux, he has the tools for all-out attacking play. That’s what they did in his first season, to great effect. Expect more of the same wave-after-wave attack-and-counter this season. And, unlike Toulouse, Racing 92 or Montpellier, they won’t lose as many players to the congested international calendar. This season could be Bordeaux’s.
Arrivals
Ben Tameifuna; Joseph Dweba; Maxime Lamothe; Guido Petti; Pablo Uberti; Ben Lam; Nathanael Hulleu
Departures
Peni Ravai; Leonardo Ghiraldini; Adrien Pelissie; Florian Dufour; Masalosalo Tutaia; Lucas Meret; Semi Radradra; Blair Connor; Nicolas Plazy
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
10 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
10 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
10 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
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