Nîmes rugby club: update on the transfer window

L’artilleur Samuel Roche est de retour au RCN. MIDI LIBRE – ARMAND VERON

Nationale 2. Les joueurs sont en vacances jusqu’au 1er juillet.

"Une saison triste. Du début à la fin !", recognizes someone close to the club. It's hard to prove him wrong. Third in the group in the regular season, without ever having convinced, the RCN completely missed its home play-off against the Basques of Anglet (15-28), leaving a bitter taste for Nîmes supporters. And a half-baked feeling with rarely successful performances, far from the stated ambitions.

Among the eleven departures, some made people cough

Faced with this failure, the president of the RCN, Steeve Calligaro, took responsibility. First by noting the departure of eleven players, the lot of each season somewhere… hellip; Even if some have, let's admit it, made people cough. Like those of Thomas Duprat, Alexandre Nierat and Elias Nouri, even the osteopath Sylvain Brun.

Right in his boots, the strong man of the club assumes his choices and justifies himself: "We made proposals to all these players , proposals which they refused!"

Convinced that the team lacked leaders aligned with the same objective throughout the season – that of the rise in National – the latter focused on finding players with strong character. On the front line first, with the recruitment of right and left pillars Zeid Stankovic from the Stade métropolitain, Corentin Maumont from the Arcachon basin and Mathis Arnaud (Aubenas). Another recruit on the front line, Lucas Larré-Larrouy, hooker from Auch. An experienced player who has played at Stade Toulouse, Montauban, Béziers, Périgueux and Cognac.

The ghost Samuel Roche

Still ahead, the club also noted the arrivals of Tiko Batibasaga, a 23-year-old Fijian, 2nd row of Rennes in dual license with Vannes (1.92 cm, 110 kg), and Marius Vialle, 3rd line French National 2 champion in 2023 with Périgueux. The latest recruit is a returnee in the person of Samuel Roche. After a blank season in Nationale 1 in Hyères-Carqueiranne, the top scorer in Fédérale 1 with Nîmes during the 2021-2022 season with 359 points scored, decided to come home. Until 2026.

Character, experience but also youth

Experience therefore, but also youth who smell good of Nîmes training. With Gabriel Austruy (Biarritz and Soyaux-Angoulême) and Clément Di Pasquale (MHR) who will find well-known faces like Nicolas Riou, Guillaume Tonnin and Valentin Tonin.

"This combination of local players and others who come with experience should allow us to get off to a good start&quot ;, Mr. Calligaro hopes. With the desire not to relive the same season, and the ambition "to be more demanding".

I subscribe to read more