Dragons – MHR: Montpellier wants to launch its Challenge season in an ambitious way with a rejuvenated and revamped team

Mohamed Haouas sera titularisé pour la première fois cette saison dans le pack du MHR. Midi Libre – JEAN MICHEL MART

Focused on the Top 14, the MHR does not forget the Challenge, an event that it has won twice. The Héraultais travel to Wales to face Newport, this Friday, December 6 (9 p.m.).

“Historically, every slightly complicated season that we have had, this competition has given us a breath of fresh air”, Arthur Vincent, who regains his captain's stripes this Friday (9 p.m.), sums up the MHR's relationship with this Challenge. A competition that the Montpellier team has won twice (2016 and 2021) and which has often allowed them to get back on track in difficult times. This was particularly the case last season when the event allowed Patrice Collazo to give new momentum to an MHR on the brink of the abyss.

“Historically, she built the 2022 title because the year before we won it and we continued. It's true that at that time, when I took part in meetings with the staff, I found it surprising but it proved the staff right, Philippe Saint-André, who had decided to go all out”, explains Joan Caudullo, the MHR manager.

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While they are coming off four solid performances in the Top 14, but with players in high demand, the Hérault staff could have been tempted to stay focused on the domestic championship. However, Caudullo assures us: “We are ambitious, we want to continue to perform well”.Despite a revamped and rejuvenated team lined up against the Newport Dragons, a Welsh team that remains on a series of six consecutive defeats in its championship.

“I hope we all have it in mind and that the 43 guys are in phase with this, insists Arthur Vincent. These are matches that we have to play at 100%. What we want is to win as many matches as possible. So yes, it's certain that we want to play it to the fullest like all competitions. In any case, we're approaching it like that. It will be important to have this state of mind this weekend”.

“I have known other times when we completely changed the team and put the young players in to rest those who had a little more playing time, I don't have that strategy, continues the Hérault manager.I want to create emulation in my group, I think we are creating something. I don't want to stop this dynamic, but at the same time I want to see some players who haven't had much playing time, the youngsters who deserve it.”

With five Espoirs

Among these youngsters, there will be five Espoirs lined up on the match sheet. Third row Youssouf Soucouna (20 years old), fly-half Aurélien Barreau (19 years old) and hooker Lyam Akrab will be starters, prop Luca Tabarot (20 years old) and third row Jules Veyrier (19 years old) on the bench. Not much older, Alexis Bernadet (23 years old) will experience his third start in the scrum, he who is discovering the top level this season. “It will allow players who have a little less playing time to show that we are starving. We have everything to prove and there is a lot of excitement for this new competition”, says the former Montauban player.

Score points and the spirits of the staff and why not dream of a third Challenge in the trophy cabinet.

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