The transfiguration of USAP supporters, who play in the Top 14 of rugby union, is notable. It took just one match on Saturday January 24 at the Aimé-Giral stadium for fans of the Catalan club to find smiles and, above all, serenity.
Last Saturday, the usapists beat Montauban (31-8) in a storm, the direct rival at the end of the Top 14 ranking. Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) now has a 7-point lead over a team from Tarn-et-Garonne that is weak and helpless in the face of the very solid teams in the Top 14. And the position of 14th is synonymous with a direct descent into Pro D2.
“Even when we didn’t win anything at the start of the season, during this very difficult period with zero points, our supporters never gave up. Even last, at the Aimé-Giral stadium we played to a sold-out crowd. This shows the attachment of the city and even the entire region to this team. And the arrival of Laurent Labit was decisive. The players’ state of mind has changed,” said Jean Claude Estirach, the president of the Arrels supporters’ club, impatient to discover the new recruits next season… in the Top 14 of course.
“We have to win away matches”
On condition, however, of ensuring maintenance, in other words of going for twelfth place occupied by LOU (Lyon) which is still 14 points ahead. “It’s difficult but not impossible. We have to win away matches, which hasn’t happened for more than a season. But our players have just demonstrated their ability by beating Stade Toulouse, then ASM fourteen against fifteen,” continues Vincent Panabières, the boss of the Trabucaïres penya who is hoping for a cannonball end to the season to create an irrational situation in the rankings by beating Lou in Perpignan in three weeks.
For the moment, remaining within the strictly rational field, we should win this Saturday January 31 against Racing 92 at the Alliance Arena. Even if the task on artificial turf will be difficult.
Even the Parisian supporters of Penya Els de Paris amb Usap recognize this. “We will be a little over 200 supporters at the stadium, plus those who will arrive from Perpignan. We will make a lot of noise and we hope to grab points. This is a new situation since the arrival of Laurent Labit to lead the team,” explains Hugo Dunyach, one of the managers of this penya in the capital. With passion, they follow all the matches together from their HQ, the Long Hop bar-pub in the 5th arrondissement, which for several years has become the unofficial embassy of the Catalans in Paris.
