Stade Toulousain young players, Digi Mart USA News (Toulouse, France): Stade Toulousain has relied on its academy to manage periods of injuries and squad rotation, and its young players are arriving at the top level already prepared, according to forwards coach Jean Bouilhou.
“Honestly, this generation of players born after 2004 does not approach rugby the way my generation or those born in the 1990s did,” Bouilhou said. He described how the young players now emerging in the Pink City differ from their predecessors.
The club has shown in recent seasons that its academy allows it to cover for the absences of senior players and pass through periods of injury or squad rotation without difficulty. Players such as Lukas Amati and Marc-Elie Kouassi, Bouilhou said, do not appear to feel stress when playing alongside established internationals.
“There is no pressure with them,” Bouilhou said. “I think they prepare, but they don’t have much more pressure than that.
They are obviously well guided by the older players, and they threw themselves into the match like that.” He added that these players work hard, give themselves the means to succeed, and arrive with greater athletic and rugby maturity than earlier generations.
Bouilhou said the club sees these players as physically and rugby-ready earlier than previous generations, though he was unsure whether their exposure to rugby on television is a factor.
That early development and mindset have allowed the young players to quickly meet the demands of the Top 14. In Toulouse, prospects train with professionals throughout the week to ease transitions.
Lukas Amati, a 19-year-old center measuring 1.87 meters and weighing 92 kilograms, has started twice in three matches and scored a try against Pau.
“We don’t put pressure on ourselves before matches, not even the day before or during,” Amati said. “We laugh a lot while staying focused.
We tell ourselves we know how to play rugby, and the older players repeat it to us all week. Without pressure, that’s when we play best.
It comes naturally, and then it follows.”
The approach is relaxed, with no long speeches shouted before matches. These young players come to play, and it is working well for them.
With injured and selected players unavailable for the Autumn Nations Cup, Stade Toulousain must rely on its young players. Leading them is Thomas Lacombre, understudy to Peato Mauvaka and Julien Marchand.
Toulouse is scheduled to visit Pau on Sunday for the eighth round of the Top 14, a trip shaped by squad changes as some players are injured and internationals are being rested.
New Zealand second/third-row Jimmy Tupou, already in Toulouse, will not be able to sign as a medical joker after his medical examination revealed a previously undetected condition.
On Saturday, the Castres and Toulouse teams meet in the first leg of the derby between the two clubs, at Pierre-Fabre, where Toulouse has decided to rotate its squad.
