In his own way, Bernard Laporte settled some scores. We do not know if they will really be right but the former president of the French Federation, forced to resign last January and recruited as director of rugby for Montpellier by club owner Mohed Altrad to turn around a team last in the standings of the Top 14, delivered certain truths, his own, on RMC in Bartoli Time.
While the new association of the two men, convicted last December at first instance for corruption and influence peddling, before appealing, during the Laporte-Altrad trial, could surprise, the former coach of the Blues, ex-manager of the Stade Français then Toulon reacted strongly this Sunday evening. “If I understand that my return is annoying? No, he said. He annoys idiots, but there are idiots everywhere and those don’t interest me. There is a law in France. In France there is a presumption of innocence. I am convinced that I did nothing. There is justice and I will respect it but the presumption of innocence is the presumption of innocence. I am not prevented from coaching today, from working in professional rugby. I don’t see why anyone should blame me for anything as long as it’s legal.”
“The jealous and the bitter, I don’t answer them and above all I don’t listen to them”
Laporte therefore validated his new staff, built according to his words in a hurry. Patrice Collazo, whose adventure did not really end well in La Rochelle, Toulon and Brive, will be the manager and he will be supported by Vincent Etcheto, ex-coach of Bordeaux-Bègles, Bayonne and Soyaux-Angoulême, Christian Labit, ex-manager of Carcassonne and Antoine Battut, player with Racing, Montpellier and Bayonne.
“I don’t answer the jealous and the bitter, and above all I don’t listen to them. It’s as simple as that,” continued Laporte before discussing the failure of the French XV, eliminated in the quarter-final of the World Cup by the Springboks (29-28) on October 15. “I think some people broke everything,” he said. We should have been world champions.”
According to him, the current leaders of French rugby have not had enough influence with World Rugby. “I worked with them (World Rugby executives) for six years,” he continued. I know what I mean. I was vice-president for two years, and for four years on the board. It has always been like this. You have to be important. So that doesn’t mean that the referee favors you, eh, that’s not what should be said, but there we had the impression of not playing the World Cup at home. It is obvious. No political weight, nothing, only constant criticism…” Strange. Because how could political power influence a match if not through its influence on the referees?
