Français
It was as if the Saint-Barthélemy rugby players were still on the plane when kick-off came, such was the poor start to the game by the sky blues, as evidenced by Bruc's first try, scored in the second minute of play. The scoreboard showed 25-0 after 25 minutes, with no sign of a comeback from the Barracudas, who were unrecognizable compared to their last two outings against RCG and Good Luck. Admittedly limited in numbers due to travel and with players playing in unfamiliar positions, Saint Barths still spent the first half discouraged defensively, to the point of trailing 36-0 at halftime. In the second half, there were some improvements in their play, but their inability to score against a strong defensive opponent gradually eroded the motivation and morale of the "Barras." In the end, with nine tries conceded and no points scored, the final score was hard to swallow. Barracudas coach and player Romain Viriato gave a cold analysis of his team's performance: "We didn't get into this game, we were still in the locker room, I don't know... the guys who lined up today did what they could because we didn't have all our key players to perform well in this match. But as soon as we were breached in defense, we stopped playing. That's not good! We need to make an effort, including those who aren't here tonight. They're involved too! We all need to take a long, hard look at ourselves, including the coaches. Maybe the staff's message isn't getting through anymore, but we need to get back to work seriously!" Captain Gabriel Pont echoed his sentiments: "We arrived with a heavily reshuffled team, with three backs forced to fill in up front. We hardly trained over the holidays... to prepare for a match like this in just two weeks, and we can see the result. After a clearly unsuccessful start to the game, we went back to playing simple rugby, but they were stronger than us up front, so it didn't pay off. We took a big hit, but it can serve us well in the derby against the Archiballs. To do that, we'll need a lot of people at training and we'll need to bring back the necessary ingredients to rugby: intensity, determination, and cohesion!"
After this heavy defeat, the Barracudas remain in 4th place in the standings but will have to put in an XXL performance in front of the Saint-Jean crowd on January 31 when they host the Archiballs of Saint-Martin.
The upcoming Northern Islands Derby could be crucial for the sky blues and whites if they don't want to see a home playoff semifinal slip through their fingers...
