MHR – Toulouse: Lenni Nouchi wants to bring his youth and his carefreeness to try to avoid the roadblock
|Lenni Nouchi de retour avec le MHR contre Toulouse. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO
Back against Castres after three weeks of absence, Lenni Nouchi (20 years old) will be one of the strengths of the MHR against Toulouse, Saturday (3 p.m.) at the GGL Stadium in the Top 14.
At 20 years old, Lenni Nouchi is almost an old hand within the Montpellier team. It’s not for nothing that the staff made him a captain in this tormented season. A responsibility that the native of Béziers took on without batting an eyelid. "I’try to bring my youth and my carefreeness to the group, smiles the big third row. It’s true that I was given responsibilities this year, I’m trying to take them little by little without shaking up the codes too much, but I’m trying to bring my youth to the table too on that side."
Injured during the match against Toulon on March 23, Lenni Nouchi made his return against Castres last week. "It’s frustrating not being able to help your friends, not being able to sacrifice yourself for them, he slips. It’s even more frustrating when you lose and don’not play, so I was really looking forward to starting again."
"One foot in the dam"
The return of the U20 world champion was not enough to revive a MHR which remains on a series of 5 consecutive defeats in Top 14. Three days from the end, and just before welcoming the Toulouse leader , Montpellier no longer really has a choice if it wants to avoid a perilous roadblock to save its skin in the elite. "We no longer have our destiny in our hands, so now we just have to win, put in great performances, like we did in Castres", Nouchi breathes.
"We have one foot in the dam, he recognizes, it’is sure and certain. Now, we have world-class players in the team who have already played matches under pressure much more than at the moment, so we have to use them too, try to make the most of them. learn from them and follow the group, follow the leaders that are in this team, the oldest, to pick up the slope and continue to move forward despite poor results."< /em>
"We were able to respond"
There is obviously an easier way than the multiple French champion, even if he is preparing for a Champions Cup final, to try to get back on track. "No, that n&rsquo ;is not the easiest, recognizes Nouchi, but we saw that in very complicated moments, against big teams, we were able to respond. When we had eight defeats in a row, we hosted Castres, who were very well ranked, and we were able to respond, so we hope it will do the same this weekend."
Patrice Collazo's men would indeed be well inspired to return to success. In the event of defeats against Stade Toulousain, they would almost be condemned to play a tricky play-off among the Pro D2 finalists.
A scenario which could allow Lenni Nouchi to return to Béziers, his hometown, where he put on his first crampons. "I follow them, I was going to go to the stadium as often as possible. I am very happy, because it is my childhood club, my heart club. At the moment, I don't go there too much, because they often talk to me about the dam, so they annoy me a little", smiles- il.
"I hope they go as far as possible, and I even hope they win it all . At least, we won't need to talk about it", he decides. So Béziers-MHR, a dream dam ? "It depends on who, cuts Nouchi. It would bother me a little, but if we come and play them, there won't be a problem."< /p>
The people of Montpellier still hope to avoid this possibility. But for that, we have to start by beating Toulouse on Saturday.
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