Stade Français – MHR: two teams plagued by doubts oppose each other, woe to the vanquished ?

Stade Français is going through a sporting and internal crisis, while MHR is still looking for certainties. The two teams will face each other this Saturday, October 5th at Jean-Bouin (4:30 p.m.), for the 5th day of Top 14.

Frankly, apart from Toulouse, La Rochelle and Bordeaux-Bègles, which club exudes serenity?? Who says, apart from these three, barring an industrial accident, that it is almost certain to be in the top six next spring?? None. Everywhere, we are walking on eggshells. Everyone is nervous, fragile.

Stade Français, declared a title candidate at the start of the season and opponent of the MHR this Saturday, has fallen into line. Here it is in the “no certainty” category after four days, close to the “club in crisis” section. To get out of it, the Parisian club decided to fire its head coach, Karim Ghezal, this Monday. “We arrived together in November 2023, I had imagined a collaboration and an organization, and it is clear that we had some dysfunctions”, declared Laurent Labit at a press conference on Tuesday. Atmosphere.

There are no intra-staff dysfunctions at the moment in Montpellier. The pressure is there, obviously. The weight of the Top 14 is clearly felt. The lack of results, too. But the management's stated desire to trust Joan Caudullo and his men implies a slightly more comfortable cushion to build over time. Which is appreciated and appreciated around the club. Even so, we have the impression, that we forgive defeat more easily.

“It horrifies me, it annoys me”

A form of indulgence that has the gift of annoying Benoît Paillaugue. “After Toulouse, I was tapped on the shoulder and told: it's not serious. It shocks me. Yes, we see behavior, it's better. Everyone agrees. But we lose. So, what's cool about this story??”, the boss of the Montpellier attack said this week.

With three losses in four matches, the MHR is not quite where it would like to be. Accounting-wise, it is not ahead. And above all, its content is largely improvable. So the “excuse” of time is not one. This is what the Hérault staff is trying to make its players understand, in a cruel lack of confidence.

“Me, these speeches where they say that it's not serious, that everything is fine, where they tap you on the shoulder, me, it horrifies me. It annoys me. And that must piss the guys off, because they're on the field. You don't train all week to lose a match. That doesn't exist. Or else, you have to change sports. You're going to play hopscotch”, thundered the former scrum-half, always so blunt and lucid in the press conference.

A vision of things, a hatred of defeat that the Montpellier staff tries to instill in the team. But the Cistes are still sick, can't free themselves from their demons, don't dare to go on the field. This Saturday, they will be up against other players with their heads in the bag. “We have always been a team that revived teams that were at rock bottom. It would be good if that were reversed”, Paillaugue said. Avoiding playing only one half, like in Bayonne (27-26), would be a good start.