Top 14: Montpellier wants to turn the page after a catastrophic last season

Première saison à la tête du MHR pour l’ancien talonneur du club Joan Caudllo. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Montpellier opens its Top 14 season this Saturday against Lyon, at the GGL Stadium. State of play of a team that changed everything, or almost everything, in the off-season.

1 A completely revamped staff

Barely had the maintenance been secured, the president Altrad chose to shake up (once again) his staff. Patrice Collazo, Vincent Etcheto and Christian Labit left the club. It is now Joan Caudullo who has the keys to the truck, assisted by Benoît Paillaugue and Geoffrey Doumayrou. A real gamble since the first has never been a head coach in the pros while the other two hung up their boots only a few months ago. “They are passionate, competent people. They are young, so we have to support them, concedes Bernard Laporte, the director of rugby. But it is serious, it is applied. But only the truth on the ground validates all that."

The two preparation matches have, in any case, given clues about the direction taken by this new staff. A return to the DNA of the Montpellier game which relies on power. Almost all of the eight tries scored in preparation were in this phase of the game.

2 A remodeled squad

It was one of the mantras of last season, the squad was too unbalanced to perform. Readjusted during the season, notably with the arrival of hooker Christopher Tolofua, the Montpellier group underwent a vast restructuring. No less than 15 departures for 15 arrivals. Enough to completely redesign the squad. Even if the late departure of Louis Carbonel was not really anticipated. The fly-half position will therefore be the responsibility of the Argentinian Domingo Miotti who arrived from Oyonnax and the young Thomas Vincent who will experience his first Top 14 season.

“The lesson from last year is that we had to renew the group. It was obvious. We had to send new blood, rebalance the team. That's what we tried to do”, recognizes Bernard Laporte.

3 A reinforced identity

“It's a young staff with a strong Montpellier feel. It gives it an identity. These are people who have worn the jersey. It's always a good omen for players who arrive. They say to themselves: “These guys did what I'm doing here before me“, explains Bernard Laporte. The MHR has decided to play the Montpellier card to the hilt. A card already played by appointing Lenni Nouchi, trained at the club, captain last year.

“We can see this clearly with Stade Toulousain. It's true that continuity with the elders is something important”, continues Laporte. It is also an opportunity to give back an identity to an MHR that had been lost for a few seasons and is trying to erase this image of the “Langueboks” that has stuck to it for a long time. Perhaps also to allow the public to identify with its team and return en masse to the stadium.

4 A training course under construction

The departure of Joan Caudullo from the training course does not reset the work in this area. On the contrary, it is one of the club's priority projects. Between the various constraints of Jiff, salary cap and contracts, training is an important tool for Top 14 clubs. “I am delighted with the performance of some youngsters, who have been with us since the beginning, assures Bernard Laporte. There are promising youngsters. We must go and find more, train more, so that we understand that it is important.”

A MHR that multiplies the projects in the hope of quickly returning to the top.

I subscribe to read the rest