“At this level, it's complicated”: MHR lacked too many things to beat Lyon in the opening of the Top 14

Couilloud s’impose devant Louwrens, Bécognée et Nouchi, le symbole de Lyonnais qui ont su tirer leur épingle du jeu. – DORIAN CAYUELA

Pour ses débuts en championnat, le MHR s’est incliné sur sa pelouse contre Lyon, samedi.

The summer was therefore not enough to heal the wounds of a Montpellier team still bruised by its last season.

The GGL Stadium is already no longer impregnable, the fault of a determined LOU and a MHR that alternated between good and bad. “I found that we lacked travel, we made too many mistakes today. At this level, it's complicated”, conceded head coach Joan Caudullo after the match.

Montpellier had shown character and a good response at the start of the match. Despite a try from Couilloud (8th), Lenni Nouchi's teammates had brilliantly recovered. Like their first try, a long pass from Léo Coly on Tambwe's wing, and a millimetre-perfect offering from the Congolese for full-back Stuart Hogg, who came to support to finish between the posts (14th). When Arthur Vincent doubled the lead (18th), we thought that this MHR had all the tools to succeed in his debut.

Nos Cistes s'inclinent 26 à 22 face au LOU RUGBY. pic.twitter.com/rhyjfAxRDi

— Montpellier Rugby (@MHR_officiel) September 7, 2024

But he was going to fall back into his old ways. Those lost balls, that indiscipline and so many little details that ruined his life last season. Bad luck, when Lenni Nouchi asked for the video of the second Lyon try that turned into a penalty try and a yellow card against the MHR (34th), then in the process, this try by Gabriel Ngandebe after a tightrope act… which ends in a penalty accompanied by a yellow card against the Hérault winger for a head-to-head clash. When things don't work out…

Also read: MHR-Lyon: “We don't come out of what we've experienced unscathed”, “I'm not worried about what's next”… reactions after the Montpellier defeat

“Then, we run after the score, we rush to the touchlines, and behind, we didn't give the best face. And when you're not 100% throughout the match, you can't win. It's not possible”, the Montpellier coach coldly noted.

LES VINCENT REGALENT 🤩

Magnifique petit par-dessus de Thomas Vincent pour Arthur Vincent qui file aplatir entre les poteaux !@MHR_officiel 💥#MHRLOU pic.twitter.com/BNC5jyYln8

— CANAL+ Rugby (@CanalplusRugby) September 7, 2024

“There were times when we dropped the pace. That was also the case last year. We weren't consistent throughout the match, admits center Thomas Darmon. We conceded some tries that were a little too easy…"

Read also: REPLAY. MHR-Lyon: too undisciplined, Montpellier loses for its first outing of the season… relive the highlights of the match

Disappointed, the Héraultais could be because they showed that there was talent and desire in this team. Some remains of last year too… “I think there are some ghosts lingering over this match, that everything is perhaps not digested yet, breathes Joan Caudullo. We don't come out unscathed from what we've experienced, now we have to work to forget that and move on."

Because despite everything, Montpellier came to die four points behind Lyon. And believed in it until the end when Karkadze scored shortly after the hour mark.
The MHR tried, sometimes clumsily, sometimes making mistakes, like this breakthrough by Chalureau who made the difference before letting the ball slip away (78th).

"We're not on the verge of precipice”

Montpellier will be able to reassure itself with a good integration of its recruits, Stuart Hogg in the lead (see below), on a scrum that has also found its colors. “We had some interesting sequences. We see that there are players who arrived this year, who are doing us good, who are making us move forward, either by foot or by individual qualities. I think there is really something positive”, reassures Thomas Darmon.

Some positive but only one point in the bag before facing Usap and hosting Toulouse, not the easiest of starts. Probably not what the staff and players were hoping for in this first outing, but we'll have to make do.

“We'll have bad times, and we'll have good times too. I don't want to fall into gloom. We have to change, but we're not on the edge of a precipice”, says Caudullo. We'll have to be careful not to get too close to it.

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