Is Rest More Important than the Win?

This is a question asked many times, by many teams, throughout the season in France. With 26 Top 14 matches, at least 6 in European Cup, and then other preseason or friendlies, each team plays at least 35 games in a season (which goes from August to May). Of course no player plays all of these matches, but there are some who play most. And it's finding the right times to rest these players throughout the season, usually during matches you can afford to not win.

After last weeks beheading, I think the coaches realized that playing the same players almost 8 weeks in a row comes at a cost. In an Amlin Cup match that meant everything if we were in it to win it, the coaches instead put their eggs in the Top 14 basket and rested players. They realized guys were just plain tired, more mentally than physically, and that's everything in a game like this. I think only the hooker started both the Biarritz match and the Amlin Cup match against La Rochelle, everyone else was either on the bench or out of the 23.

After saying all this, it was still quite a competitive game, as La Rochelle rested many of their players as well. We were leading 17-16 with 17 minutes to go, but after back-to-back tries via mauls, the La Rochelle team finished the game on top, with the final of 28-17. What this means is the Amlin Cup is pretty much over, however, this is actually good for us. We have at least one less game by not advancing. Meanwhile, La Rochelle will most likely have one more. This will be good in regards to our Top 14 competition, and hopefully help us stay out of relegation.

Thursday we play at Gloucester for our final Amlin Cup match.