Pro D2: Pierre Caillet's mea culpa, after Béziers' failure against Provence Rugby (17-18)

Avant la pause, Hans Nkinsi assure avoir aplati sur la ligne. Nul ne l'a vu. Midi Libre – Michael Esdourrubailh

Pierre Caillet, l'entraîneur de l'ASBH, qui a écopé d'un carton rouge à la pause, affirme qu'il a manqué de sang-froid. A l'image de son équipe.

Pierre Caillet never cheated. Coming out of a match, jersey on his back, or wearing the coach's armband, he always took responsibility for the facts, his actions and those of his players. So, Thursday evening, after the duel lost by his troops against Provence Rugby (17-18), in front of the press, a bitter smile at the corner of his lips and eyes reddened by fatigue, he ;immediately stepped up to the plate.

He returned to the red card, which he had received at half-time for having had a disagreement with Joris Cazenave, the Provençal captain: "We decided to play hard for 80 minutes, to commit and the players did it, noted the coach. I am not disappointed by their state of mind. They gave everything. But we haven't found the solutions. I take 80% of the responsibilities. Usually, we are calm, we have control and whatever happens, a lot of composure. At half-time, I had a collision in returning to the locker room. My role is to be calm, to show the players the path to take and I didn't do it through my attitude. They had a little less composure than usual because I too had none. This is why I take a lot of responsibility for this defeat. It is true that we complained and railed against the referee. Which we don't usually do. And I set a bad example." 

Lack of control

Due to a lack of control, the Biterrois did not, in fact, know how to strategically adapt. Which was one of their strengths recently. They have, for example, often stubbornly insisted on pushing ahead, hitting a wall: "This match allows us to see where we still need to progress, analyzes Pierre Caillet . There are options that we have forgotten. We played in the same direction, when we could have played closer to the rucks, kicked over the top… We were also less effective close to the lines. We played a lot with the forwards, without finding the right sequences. When you are opposed, you have to know how to develop other game options. This failure is infuriating. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop there. In this block, there is still an important match, at home, against Agen. We will get back to work and we will win."

Knowing that Béziers, who however scored a defensive bonus point, is still third in the ranking. And is therefore still one of the contenders for the final sprint.

Did Sias Koen and Hans Nkinsi flatten ?

Arbitrating is never easy. The players themselves also recognize that sometimes they are unable to say whether or not they were at fault. It would therefore be inappropriate to incriminate a referee. The fact remains that today, television means allow each action to be dissected, a valuable aid in terms of arbitration. During the broadcast of the match on Canal +, with supporting images, Thomas Lievremont, consultant on the channel, announced that Sias Koen, a few minutes before the break, had flattened & nbsp;the ball in the in-goal. In stoppage time in the first half, he also said, while analyzing the video, that Hans Nkinsi scored on the line. Two actions not noted by the referees.

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