It’s the soap opera of the week on the UBB side. Will Matthieu Jalibert and Ben Tameifuna compete in the Top 14 final on Friday evening? The opener, victim of a muscle tear in his thigh on June 8, had himself announced that he was out until the end of the season. The pillar, hit in the right shoulder in the play-off against Racing, appeared with a splint on Wednesday when leaving Bordeaux for Marseille, and his scrum coach, Jean-Baptiste Poux, announced Monday on France Bleu Gironde that he could not apply.
This Thursday at a press conference, UBB manager Yannick Bru recognized that the two players could well participate in the match against Toulouse. “It’s a final, a special match, not a match that we approach with a thought for what’s next. So we will make the decision this (Thursday) evening, at the end of the captain’s training, on the remaining gray areas. »
“We used every minute of the week to see if it was possible. And it’s the player who will decide, quite simply, because there is still a lot of autonomy in this group”
“Both are pluses for the team. Now, we have won a lot of matches without Matthieu this year, we have also won a few without Ben, but it is clear that we prefer to have them with us, added the Bordeaux coach. They have a big impact on our team. But once again, like the week we experienced, we are not imposing anything on them. It’s the last match, they want to participate. There were times when they thought they couldn’t participate. (…) We used every minute of the week to see if it was possible. And it’s the player who will decide, quite simply, because there is still a lot of autonomy in this group. »
A plan B just in case
The UBB team composition will be communicated this Thursday at 6 p.m. But the staff can still make changes up to an hour before the final kicks off. “We are not in a strategy of putting together a plan that could weaken us more than benefit us, that’s very clear,” assures Bru. If both players can’t play, the whole group knows there’s a plan B.”
At 2:30 p.m., both players participated in captain’s training. During the time journalists were able to attend, Tameifuna was training with the group. Jalibert was on the sidelines, rehearsing running and passing exercises in the goal with members of the staff.
