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Biarritz - troubles and departures!

Evidence of the waning power of the terrible threesome who have controlled the downward spiral?
 
Tigs Man said:
what is Fabien Barcella like been linked to coming up here?
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Has been injured or injury prone since the 2011 RWC and certainly nowhere near the form that earned him international selection when he was arguably one of the best in the world. He has difficulty maintaining his place (7 starts this season so far and just 14 last) in a poor Biarritz front row which I think says it all!!
 
Expensive but not sure many clubs would be seeking him out......so maybe he would settle for less money and the odd game but he is not that old at just over 30!
 
Here is an article that sums up the problems of Biarritz and the lack of any chance of any solution.....

http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/top-1...-des-tetes-vont-tomber_sto4160868/story.shtml

Interesting..........

1. I have been saying for a number of seasons that the triumvirate of Imanol, Traille and Yach have not been playing for the club but for their international careers when they had one and themselves.

2. I have been saying for too long that they seem to have too much control or influence with Blanco making any coaches job untenable.

3. I have been saying for too long that there are too many players in the club who have no interest in fighting week in week out.

4. Blanco and Rodrigues have failed to recognise these very facts which are so bleeding obvious to all, and have recruited those players and have been unable or unwilling to appoint the necessary hard men coaches to get rid of these players and bring in those who want to earn their money......look at UBB, they appointed Ibanez, a Basque, and he has brought good journeymen pros to the club who relish the chance to play week in week out and where are they in the table!!.

It is time for Blanco to realise that he is the problem and the solution.........the problem because he has failed and the solution because he can appoint a CEO of the club with the strength and integrity and the total freedom to operate and within three years they will have some chance of making an attempt to get back into the Top 14.

Fail to do that and BO will be the junior partner in a takeover by Bayonne or will become an amateur team again if it avoids bankruptcy!
 
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It would appear that Blanco is making a rod for his own (and that of the new trainer assuming there is one of course!) back as Imanol and Yach would appear to have been given one year contract extensions!!

Good news is that at least Traille has seen the light and announced that he is off to Pau on a one year, with option for another, contract.........shame he is not taking the other two with him!!!!
 
give them time!!!! this looks more and more like an agreement towards a Bayonne / BO, BASQUE XV which must be the way to go BO are vertually down and out and there are no guarentees that they will bounce straight back, i think its harder to get back up that get relegated in the first place. All they have to sort out is where they play and that would be Bayonne if they stay up which i think they will.The BO supporters would they follow a Basque XV even if they had to travel to Bayonne?? probably the biggest question , maybe with time as they all love their rugby over in the Basque country.
 
gaston le gaff said:
give them time!!!! this looks more and more like an agreement towards a Bayonne / BO, BASQUE XV which must be the way to go BO are vertually down and out and there are no guarentees that they will bounce straight back, i think its harder to get back up that get relegated in the first place. All they have to sort out is where they play and that would be Bayonne if they stay up which i think they will.The BO supporters would they follow a Basque XV even if they had to travel to Bayonne?? probably the biggest question , maybe with time as they all love their rugby over in the Basque country.
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To be fair it is the only way forward and you will know that I have long been of that view....yet again Blanco has stuffed it up as if he had any vision he would have been looking at this three years ago when they had more to come to the table with!! Now, they are a defeated and a beaten club in poor financial state with no idea how to get themselves out of the mess that they created.

There is little chance of their coming back up without structural changes and that ain't going to happen so, yes, Fusion is their only alternative and will the Biarritz supporters follow a Basque team...................depends on name and venue. Cannot see them going to Jean Dauger in the short term but, hey, they will get old and the younger guys who love rugby will not have the old "hatred" to keep them back......!!

Would I go.......not unless there is a new management structure brought in to manage the enlarged set up as I would have no more confidence in the Bayonne management than I do in Blanco's shower!! Bayonne will only just escape relegation themselves this year and have been doing so for many years too.........
 
CAB_for_ever said:
I must recognise that Bayonne usual attacking style suits me better than Lagisquet did for BO in the past... and few years ago, against Toulouse, I was there hearing "la Peña Baiona"... wow ! ;)

In fact, I didn't understand why BO is so bad this year, on the paper, the team is great, but it seems many haven't truly done their best when they played... they haven't wet the jersey as they should have...
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I know what you mean about Bayonne and attack but one of the reasons I fell under Biarritz's spell (and moved there for a while) was their first half performance many years ago at Welford Road when they blew Leicester, then the pre-eminent English club team, away in a stunning first half of attacking rugby and then resorted to Lagisquet's 9 man rugby for the second half to hang on.......

I would argue where you could say that BO even had a good team on paper with Imanol, and Traille both showing signs of age and boredom in previous seasons (whicih has infected Yach this season to the extent that Lesgourges is the number one choice of all bar Blanco). The recruits, other than Waenga (at 10 who has played as well as he can with those around him and must surely come good in the Top 14 with a stronger team about him) and Forno have not added to the team which has struggled for at least four seasons and achieved above their talents with desire that has been sadly missing.

They do not have a strong enough front row (and by implication line out) or centre partnership to survive in a top league and only Baby deserves a Top 14 starting position out of those five positions in the team.

Add to that poor recruitment over the last five years and a lack of decent team and scrum management by Rordigues (a team mate of Blanco's in the early 1990's no less!!) and internal strife akin to the French international 2011 RWC team (in which Imanol, Traille and Yach were prominent--any coincidence!!!)!!
 
I repeat the article on the Sud Ouest Paper today indicating that Blanco has managed to persuade the idiots on the BOard to re appoint him for SIX YEARS to ensure that BO will never survive and will slowly expire! He also announces that a foreign coach (expected to be a New Zealander who may or may not have had a term with BO....tica!) and that Lecouls (Another BOdy) will be scrum coach...........The budget has been ciut by a third and I do not comment further at this time as I get over the shock of SIX more YEARS for the worst CEO in French rugby who has presided over the biggest decline of any Top 14 team in probably its history!

"ON Saturday, Serge Blanco announced to the partners of Biarritz Olympique the draft next season in Pro D2.

Besides his re-election for six years as president of the club, and the decrease in the budget(â'¬ 16.7 million to 11.7), the squad for the next team were unveiled.

It will be headed by a "foreign" manager, assisted by two coaches and a specialist in scrum (Benoît Lecouls).

Position by position (underlined names are the recruits), here is the composition of the group Biarrot 2014-2015.

Left pillar: Franck Montanella (ex-Newcastle) will support the young Johan Lourdelet. Another rookie is expected.

Hooker: Romain Ruffenach Jonah Dabti and Elvis Levis (Béziers). A fourth hooker is expected. "And he will delight Biarrots" slipped President Serge Blanco.

Pillar right: Benedict Broster, Stéphane Clément (La Rochelle) and Eugene Van Staden.

Second row: Erik Lund, Pelu Taele, Edwin Hewitt (Natal Sharks), Mathias Marie, Addison Lockley, Eric Dos Santos.

Third line: Benedict Guyot, Tanguy Molcard and Alban Placines. Another is on course.

Third line center: Ueleni Fono will be accompanied by another number 8

Imanol Harinordoquy .... On possible retirement, the French international was present at the presentation of the new project.

Scrum half: Luix Roussarie and Christophe Loustallot . Dimitri Yachvili may honour he last year of his contract at the club? A third scrum half will accompany the other two.

Flyhalf: Dan Waenga and Yohan Le Bourhis (La Rochelle).

Winger: Takudzwa Ngwenya and Vilikisa Salawa (Mont-de-Marsan) will be accompanied by two other players. One of them could be Teddy Thomas.Negotiations with Racing Metro have failed as the training compensation of the Biarrot would be too high. BO could therefore keep him. This was implied Serge Blanco Saturday with a wide smile.

Centre: Benoît Baby, Seremaia Burotu, Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Charles Gimenez, Kevin Haget.

Back: Paul Couet-Lannes. And maybe Joe Pietersen, if he agrees to reduce his salary as some of his teammates have done by a reported 40%."
 
So Yachvilli has retired....one of the greats of the game, in France anyway, and the stalwarts of BO and France for the past decade Dimitri has decided to hang up his boots at the age of 33..

He will be very fondly remembered for holding together the team, admittedly under the limited game plan of Lagisquet, through various ***les and cup wins and, one could say, has always been his own man. Thank you for all you have done and we wish you well.....no doubt Blanco will find a place for you in the BO family that runs the club!!

The only member of the triumvirate left is Imanol and we are yet to hear of his future....
 
perfect time to retire. I still think he's got a couple of years left in him though. Still kicks superbly and can boss the game. Great player.

They talk about a "revolution" in Biarritz but if you keep the same president, its not a revolution. A revolution means a complete change of the old guard and new heads in.

Its hard to stay in Top14 but i take the view its possibly even harder to get back into it...
 
Got to agree going down is the easy bit coming back up is now very difficult only Brive have gone down and bounced straight back up, the difference is enormous between the 2 divisions.
 
FrenchFan said:
perfect time to retire. I still think he's got a couple of years left in him though. Still kicks superbly and can boss the game. Great player. They talk about a "revolution" in Biarritz but if you keep the same president, its not a revolution. A revolution means a complete change of the old guard and new heads in. Its hard to stay in Top14 but i take the view its possibly even harder to get back into it...
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Afraid that is all they do is talk in Biarritz and that is why Blanco is still there and why they will not bounce back and, were they somehow to do it, they will be back and forward like a bouncing ball!

Yach has had a poor season by his high standards and has not been the NO 1 choice...that being Lesgourges who has now left. I reckon that he would not drop his wage demand but did not want to move anywhere due to his wife's family and his business commitments especially as he is an enormous fish in a little pond!

There is talk of Yach taking his coaching badges with a view to coming back, like seemingly all ex players, to work for Biarritz.....if that is true I hope to God he goes somewhere else and proves himself first
 
Eirk Lund has broken his Achilles tendon and will be out for at least nine months and, sorry Erik, at 35 years of age, that does not look good for his future playing days. As one who has always given of his best for the Bloody Opeless, I wish you well and a speedy recovery......the new guys will need you in Pro 2
 
Reports coming out that the new trainers for BO are to be August (retired last year) Bidabe (retired two years ago) and Lecouls (retired last year)..........all ex BO players!!!

Talk about jobs for the boys...............

You would never believe it if it was a soap opera but this is real life, a real rugby club and an idiot in charge!!!
 

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