Charly Malié, ASBH's fly-half, hopes for “a great game” against “a big team” from Biarritz

Charly Malié s’attend à une opposition féroce des Biarrots. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

This Thursday, 9 p.m., ASBH faces Biarritz Olympique in its Raoul-Barrière lair. Charly Malié looks back on the match in Nice and is already looking ahead to the rest of the championship.

The session was studious today, how did the week go??

First of all, it follows a victory, and it's easier to train after a match won. Even if this victory is a bit mixed, because we're not happy with the content. We'll only remember the four points. We said to ourselves that we had to move on quickly if we want to win against “big teams”. Now, it's over, this week we tried to rectify everything that we lacked there, the little details. We put a lot of effort into the run-up to this clash against this big team from Biarritz.

That is to say, “moved on to something else” ?

This championship is a perpetual questioning. No matter which team is played, no matter their ranking, it's a new match. And if we lack humility, we are punished all the time. We have to be very careful, we know that we are going to play a very big team in this championship. There is a renewal there, a new presidency, a new team, we have to be careful. The Biarritz players showed some good things during the preparation and the first match of the championship.

Beyond the lack of automatisms, in which sectors do you need to progress??

It is clearly on this lack of automatisms that we must progress. We have a core of players who have been there for quite some time but each year there are quite a few recruits. We keep the same philosophy but we know that the game we played last season requires quite a few benchmarks. It is up to the new players to absorb it, and for us, the old ones, to pass it on as quickly as possible. In any case, it is not a lack of desire, nor of concentration or control. The automatisms will arrive very quickly, I hope. When we remember last year, the first five matches were not brilliant. Some say that: “the arrival of the Portuguese was good”, certainly. But this game was built match after match, that's what made us strong at the end of the season.

If we compare to last season, at the same time, where are you ?

I would say that it's better because we have more collective reference points. Pierre Caillet, at the start of this season, really wants to rely on the elements that know each other and gradually incorporate other players. We saw it in Nice. Honestly, I feel good about us. Calm is not the word, but we still have quite a few experienced players. There is no need to panic, this championship is a marathon. We are competitors, we have a match this Thursday evening at 9 p.m. We have the privilege of playing on Canal +. I hope that the automatisms will be found, and that the public will see a great poster.

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