Pro D2, ASBH: “We are entering the heart of the season”, warns Pierre Caillet, the manager of Béziers

Pierre Caillet, here alongside Sylvain Charlet, can keep smiling at the start of 2025. Midi Libre – Michael Esdourrubailh

Pierre Caillet, the Béziers manager, looks back on his team's victory over Nice (42-9), during a rather choppy return match, where the Béziers team were uncompromising in defense. Béziers remains in 3rd place in the ranking, tied on points with Brive, the 2nd and with a 9-point lead over Colomiers, the 7th.

It was important to win to start the year off right, right?

This match was very long! We were coming off a very average match in Mont-de-Marsan, before the break. We knew it would be a bit choppy, that it would lack intensity. It was a fairly focused match, which was played at a false pace. But we knew how to score at the right time. The most important thing is not to have conceded a try. Which is positive, because in our last performances, I thought we were conceding a bit too many.

You scored six, which shows an ability to shine offensively…

We are on an average of four to five tries scored per match. Offensively, however, I think we could have pressed a little more.

Despite Taylor Gontineac's sending off (28th), with fourteen players, your team held up well. That's positive, right? ?

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It's a shame because Taylor had a good first half… Indeed, with fourteen players, we didn't fall apart and we continued to play. We had to try to be diligent, not to start a poorly controlled match. There weren't any big bursts of momentum, but not just anything, either. We did the job. Accounting-wise, we got a lot of points and that was important for the start of the year.

On Friday, January 17, your team will be in Angoulême. What kind of match do you expect?

It will be a tough trip to a team that has not necessarily been good for us in recent years. This match, like the one against Colomiers, then at home, will be important matches. Let's try to increase the intensity while continuing to maintain a certain balance between our ability to score and our ability to defend well.

Against Nice, wasn't your team sharp thanks to its ability to vary its game? ?

When we manage to have a good defense, we have offensive options. When we are on the transition game too. We are effective on the counterattack. And to perform at this level, you have to defend well.

How do you explain the first 20 minutes that were not very good against Nice??

We don't want any more observation rounds. It's important to attack the matches well. Even if we didn't have the quarter of an hour in Béziers, we still scored after twenty minutes. We had to take the score so as not to give them hope.

How do you see the rest??

We are entering the heart of the season. The smallest detail will count because it is from now on that the championship will tighten up. That's why we'll have to do better in the next matches.