L’Oeuf Sous l’Eau
J20: Carcassonne @ Vannes
In Breton legend, the city of Ys was ruled by the great King Gradlon. A centre of the arts and important trading hub, it was carved from marble, cedar and gold, with a great cathedral at its centre.
Built among the waves of the Atlantic, it was surrounded by enormous sea walls, holding back the ocean and protecting the capital from the tides.
One night, the key was stolen, the gates were opened, and the sea rushed in. As his people drowned, Gradlon fled on horseback while the waters closed around him, making a final desperate leap to safety as Ys vanished behind him forever.
A statue of the king and his horse remains outside the city of Quimper, supposedly in the place where he landed. Some say that on quiet evenings the bells of its cathedral can still be heard ringing from the deep, a reminder of the lost city.
This week, there has been so much rain in Brittany, Jean-Noël Spitzer must have thought he was in his own city of Ys.
“These challenging conditions have plagued the team for several weeks. On Monday, we were at the Rabine pitch in torrential rain, but it was unplayable. We had to stop training; the water was up to our ankles.”
Jean-No has certainly earned a statue of himself outside La Rabine one day. One thing is for certain, this coach wouldn’t abandon his people. He worked around the conditions to prepare his players, but his anger was clear:
“In Pro D2, we have some leeway given the quality of our squad…But it’s impossible to imagine being in the Top 14 next year under these circumstances. If the club’s ambition is to maintain its status [in the Top 14], things need to change from the ground up.”
They will feel lucky that this preparation came against the worst team in the league. Carcassonne sit at the bottom of Pro D2, having won just four of their 19 matches and boasting a point differential of -262.
Vannes are having very much the opposite year. They have only lost four matches and have won eight in a row at home, remaining unbeaten at Stade de la Rabine all season.
Despite their difficult preparation, Spitzer and the coaching staff will be hoping the gap in the league table will be reflected in the performance on Friday night.
As in the previous weeks, the rain continued into kick-off. Coming off a two-week break, the coaching staff had picked a rotation XV, giving some key players further rest. This included hooker Hayam El Bibouji and half-backs Richard Judd and Thibault Debaes, all starting in crucial positions.
Unfortunately the combination of bad weather and squad rotation led to slow rugby and zero points after 30 minutes.
This box score might have given the impression that Carcassonne were in it throughout the first half, but the truth was neither side were interested in scoring points. Sometimes one side sets the tone, and Carcassonne’s ragged have-a-go caught on instead of Vannes slow methodical system.
Loose passes in wet weather lead to a lot of scrums, and these were the moments that Vannes’ organisation, especially from a front row not usually given the start, shone through. El Bibouji was consistent in the lineouts throwing to experienced jumpers, and Debaes stuck to a decent kicking game despite little sign it was going to develop.
But it was all undermined by repeated knock-ons, unlucky shins at the rucks, and the general lack of connection from the players.
Some momentum came from clever kicks nearer the end of the first half. Ben Stevenson hit an excellent 50:22 and almost gathered a volley from Paul Surano which would have been a lock for try of the week.
Closer to the whistle, the home side turned these flourishes into forward progress, with pick-and-goes like a slip and slide on the wet turf. They eventually squeaked through, and Juan Bautista Pedemonte claimed the opener.
In the second half, the pressure on Carcassonne kept building and inevitably Vannes, the much better side on paper and in practice, started to take over. A scrum in Canaries territory led to an easy overlap for Elliott Roudil, who finished stylishly in the corner.
The overlaps were not done. Shortly after, Robin Taccola took the ball on the outside and fed an unselfish pass inside to Stevenson as they extended their lead to three tries to nought.
It wasn’t a matter of Vannes getting better. They were doing the same moves and making the same mistakes as the first half, including still knocking it on and sending aimless kicks forward. But Vannes eventually impose their will on teams, and Carcassonne got worse.
One player did get better, though: Anthony Bouthier. Bouthier has been out injured for two months, recovering from a knee injury he had surgery on. He joined the field to a raucous Rabine and successfully set up a 50:22, played cleverly around the park with his supporting runs, and defended well from 15.
Then he decided to really test his knee. Taking a hard line from just inside the visitors’ 22, he found the gap between the defenders and, with their hands clutching his shirt, kept his legs pumping to break through the tackles. He showed so much power and speed it was like the doctors had replaced his knee with the latest technology from Breton Dynamics.
Not long after, the referee blew her whistle and the score finished 26-0, with an œuf d’oie for Carcassonne. A disappointing and unsurprising result, even though at various points it felt like the chaos might cause some points to spill out of the visitors by accident. Once they missed the opportunity in the first half, they were never going to overcome Les Vannetais.
Sometimes a result is written before a game starts, and no matter how much they splashed or how fast they ran, they weren’t getting out of Vannes with a win, the tide was too powerful to swim away from.
The day after the Vannes-Carcassonne game, I watched England get comfortably beaten by Scotland in Murrayfield.
For the final 30 minutes, Dave Cherry, the Vannes hooker, came on for l’Écosse. His selection was contentious at the time, with the BBC calling it a ‘gobsmacking move’ and many fans preferring Glasgow’s Johnny Matthews instead.
Of course, he’s been one of the standout players for the blue and white this season, but that’s in the Pro D2, so I wasn’t sure about how his game would translate.
During his spell, he hit every lineout, carried well, and almost scored a try from a five-metre lineout, the kind he has made all season for his club. He did everything asked of him and more in what was a historic win (though becoming all too regular) against England at home for Scotland.
Not only was I surprised at how conflicted I felt watching Cherry’s excellent performance against my own country, but it reminded me how good Vannes are. They possess not only the best team in the league, but also individuals capable of coming on and seeing out a Test match in one of the biggest rivalries in Europe’s premier international competition.
Ahead of the rest of the season, having this kind of class ready to return will be invaluable. If the backups can keep winning games like Carcassonne, the starters will continue to recover, and by the time the semi-finals come around, their class might be too much.
But winning isn’t a foregone conclusion, and even if they do, as their coach said, staying up is the problem, because the only thing that’s certain is that it will rain again next year in Brittany.
Dave Cerise sur le gateau