At the end of the season, in Béziers, we also manage the physical and mental

Arnoldi sera sur le banc et Ancély, le capitaine sera titulaire. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

In a long and demanding Pro D2 championship, at the end of the season, Béziers, who travels to Grenoble this Friday, is watching over the physical and mental condition of the players.

A sprint cannot be prepared in the last few hundred meters. Especially when it comes after hundreds of kilometers… Generally led by their teammates, the sprinters only show up as they approach the finish line. The fact remains that you still have to have some strength in your legs when it comes time to make the watts speak. This is also the case when rugby players arrive at the end of the season and have joined the qualifying wagon, whether for the semi-finals or the play-offs.

Monitor troop status

It is at this moment that we must manage the organisms and the mind in order to have them under control and display a mind of steel on the big day. On the side of Béziers, which plays in Grenoble this Friday April 26 and will be in the first six at the end of the regular phase, the staff and especially the physical trainers, have started to monitor the state of their troops for weeks.

D’as much as they did not spare themselves to string together victories : "This Pro D2 championship is long, rough and very demanding, perhaps even more than the Top 14, analyzes Benjamin Bagate, the sports director of the ASBH. So we can't always be at the highest level. It is also important to rotate the players."

"We are counting on our 45 players"

In Grenoble, in fact, the group has been significantly reshuffled, especially behind (read opposite): &quot ;We are counting on our 45 players and we have total confidence in each one, insists Sylvain Charlet, the Béziers forwards coach. If I am reluctant about one of them, I don't put him in the group."

Physically, if’he has experienced as a whole a drop in power "between the end of the last block and the beginning of the current one", the Béziers group gains strength : & quot;We shortened the training sessions by making them more intense, explains Alexis Mudarra, one of the physical trainers. The players spend less time on the field , but there is more intensity. The return of certain elements who were injured also did some good. In fact, the goal of the game is to create regeneration, even on a mental level. Because if we always propose the same thing, a certain weariness appears. For two to three weeks and the Brive match, we have felt a certain physical revival."

Repeating long trips has also taken its toll on the organisms. From Rouen, the players returned at 10:30 a.m. the next day and they arrived from Aurillac at 4:00 a.m. At the end of their duel in Grenoble, which will not be easy against the Isère residents in search of qualification, the Biterrois will go on training. Enough to recover and prepare for the match against Nevers, Friday May 10: "The goal is to restart well to arrive at the final phase with mental and physical freshness.& quot;

At 7:30 p.m., at the Stade des Alpes.

 Grenoble: Farnoux- Cros, Fusier, Trouilloud, Farissier- (o) Davies- (m) Couilloud- Blanc Mappaz (cap.), Muarua, Martel- Javakhia, Lainault- Montagne, Sarragallet, Gauthier. Substitutes: Massar, Eglaine, Madeira, Guillaumond, Escande, Clément, Ezcurra, Aptsiauri.

Béziers: Glynn- Coutaud, Espeut, Recor, Mazzella- (o) Dreuille- (m) Short – Ancély (cap.), Koen, Van Bost- Gayraud, Nkinsi- Alongi, Boulassel, Amrouni. Substitutes: Arnoldi, Akhaladze, Madigan, Gunther, Marques, Pauta, Votu, Zabala.

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