“There are too many players focused on themselves and not the club. If some people don’t play the game, we have to change players. » At the beginning of May, Bernard Laporte did not hide his annoyance in the columns of Midi-Libre. The former coach of the France team, who became director of rugby at Montpellier, is used to receiving virulent criticism of his own players. And the poor position of his club had pushed him to a new charge in the media. A few weeks later, it is difficult to see any effects in the results. On the contrary.
Saturday May 18, the MHR lost again, at home, against Stade Toulouse. Nothing blameworthy on paper, the Rouge et Noir being perched at the top of the Top 14 rankings and qualified for the Champions Cup final. Problem: coach Ugo Mola had sent a young team – even frankly experimental – to preserve his finest blades before the European meeting. However, its young players often looked like old hands against the Hérault residents without ideas and finally beaten for the seventh consecutive time (29-22).
As a result, the Montpellier residents are not moving forward and no longer even have any hope of leaving 13th place in the standings, after the victories of their rivals Bayonne (against Perpignan) and Lyon (against Racing 92) later in the day. Two days before the end of the championship, they are already condemned to play a perilous play-off match against a Pro D2 club to avoid slipping into the lower division. A shame for a team that was still French champion two years earlier and in the elite since 2003.
A disaster scenario could even see the Cistes fall to last place on the wire, if Oyonnax achieves a full success, and Montpellier no longer scores a single point. Unlikely, but the dynamics of the MHR encourage us not to forget any scenario. It now remains to be seen what Bernard Laporte’s method will be to try to revive a club which “lacks leaders” as he himself pointed out.
