Amateur rugby: “We'll have to pick up points by points”, Matthieu Wolff and AS Poussan in a bad position in their R1 group

Un gros défi pour Matthieu Wolff et ses hommes. – AS Poussan.

Matthieu Wolff est entraîneur-joueur de Poussan. Premier relégable en R1, il fait le point sur les deux premiers tiers de la saison des siens et évoque les recettes pour se maintenir.

You are discovering the role of coach this season, at Poussan. How is it going, with also the role of player?

To tell you the truth, at the moment, I am even coach-player-interim president, so I have the triple role. For a first year as a coach, it's pretty good (laughs).

What are the difficulties you face in your role?

We were close to sixty members at the start of the season, but since December, we haven't been able to field two teams… Since the start of 2025, we've been forfeiting the reserve team. We're barely able to field a team, between the suspended, the injured and those who really want to come to rugby.

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Winter is often a difficult time for player motivation…

In January, you only have those who love rugby who are there. When it starts to get cold, it's dark at 5 p.m. and at 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., when you go to train, it's humid and 0° or 2°C. And you're bored to get into the candle, that the first contacts, you hurt everywhere. There, you only have those who really like it…

There are ten of us eating the same piece of bread

Isn't your group responding present?

Today, on a team like ours, you have between fifteen and twenty guys who are fully invested from the beginning to the end of the season… And on Sunday, you take the twenty-two players you have, you don't ask yourself the question of whether the guy came to train twice. The speeches you have at the beginning of the season, you have to sit back on them.

Are these problems with the workforce caused by the density of clubs in the Thau basin area??

I was talking about it with my brother, who trains at Frontinan, friends I have at Mèze and another brother who plays at Sète. It's getting very complicated. If they want rugby to continue in the Thau basin, some people will have to ask themselves real questions and at some point, the ego wars will stop so that rugby can move forward. There are ten of us eating the same piece of bread for very little subsidies, very few players or very few possibilities for players…

You are currently 9th in your group, eight points behind Revel, the first non-relegation place. Was staying up the goal at the start of the season??

For me, qualifying was the minimum at the start of the season. But we missed a few turning points, not helped by some terrible refereeing since the start of the season. I am thinking in particular of the double confrontation against Rives d’Orb…

Your group is very tough…

I would say it is a fairly even group. There is a team that, for me, is above, but because it is above physically, it is Millas.

What is the recipe to catch up and manage to stay up?

There are five matches left. We will have to pick up point by point on the first three and make a clean sheet in Revel – which will be the match not to be missed – and at home against Mauguio, to try to stay up in R1.

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