Rugby: in Geneva, RC Nîmes must show its true colours

Kelly, Qeleca et Boissière ne veulent pas rentrer à vide. MIDI LIBRE – Mikael Anisset

National 2/5th day. At Kaufmann, everything is going well for the Gardois. Away, for the moment, everything is going badly. Can they reverse the trend this Sunday in Switzerland, at the ambitious promoted Genevan ?

With two bonus points wins against Aubenas (44-12) and Mâcon (39-9), everything is going well at the start of the season, at home! Ten points taken from a possible ten, eleven tries in total. Where the problem lies is definitely away. Away from their bases, Guillaume Aguilar's men only scored two tries (in Bédarrides, 14-24) and took only one small point (defensive bonus, 12-17) during the first day in Orléans.

National or Federal Level 1 ?

"Since the start of the season, the team has really had two faces. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a National team play, and at other times, a Federal 1 team", admits the RCN manager. "Our worst opponent is us! We have to be more demanding collectively and individually", believes Aguilar.

This Sunday, we're heading to Switzerland to face Servette Geneva. A team that has gone from the fourth series to the National 2 in ten years! With four French championship titles along the way (third series 2015, second series 2016, Promotion Honneur 2018 and Fédérale 1 2024) and a few criticisms and other gibes, to the point of sometimes receiving little Swiss on its bus.

Enough to ask yourself where the schoolboy humor ends and the crass stupidity begins. We should not forget that the club was the first in the Ain committee to see its rugby school awarded a three-star label… Normal, given his means, argue his detractors, forgetting that not all those with means are as virtuous when it comes to investing in training, and that he is evolving in a country with a weak rugby culture.

Swiss on the rise

Since the start of the championship, the Swiss have continued their momentum and have surprised. Both at “home” (Servette trains and plays in different stadiums in France and Switzerland while waiting for a new stadium in the next two to three years) with two victories against Rumilly and Vienne, and away with a success at the Stade Métropolitain and a one-point defeat at Nantes (27-26).

As a result, the promoted team is at the forefront of the group, 3rd, two points ahead of Nîmes. “I expect a tough and contested match, judges the Nîmes technician. This Swiss team is well organized, physically dense. It relies on a strong conquest and a good scorer (his opener Gonnet, current top scorer in the championship, Editor's note). We will have to build our match, be disciplined to hope to bring something back from this trip." Everything depends on the face that the Gardois will show…

Sunday October 6 at 3:15 p.m. in Switzerland, Servette Geneva (3rd, 15 pts) receives Nîmes (5th, 13 pts). I subscribe to read the rest