Top 14: Day of reckoning looms for Racing Metro

By the middle of Wednesday afternoon we should have the first indication of what lies ahead for Racing Metro. That is when owner Jacky Lorenzetti has scheduled a meeting with the club’s entire squad and staff which will be followed immediately by a press conference. In the meantime, speculation will continue about the future of head coach Pierre Berbizier while preparations for Saturday’s Top 14 trip to Lyon will be put on hold.

Lorenzetti faces a painful dilemma – either back his man Berbizier or sack him and maintain the faith of a playing staff of 40. Battle lines have been drawn – the players want him out.

If in the intervening hours Lorenzetti somehow crafts a compromise which pleases both camps then he will have demonstrated some of the qualities that have seen him amass a personal fortune running into billions and reflect that his powers of mediation might be best utilised on diffusing Middle East tensions and negotiating a slight shift northwards of the Military Demarcation Line rather than suppressing a dressing room putsch.

In case you haven’t been following the tale of the unravelling of French rugby’s would-be new superpower, here’s an abridged version of recent events. Racing Metro should have won last year’s Top 14 title but blew it in the semi-final when they underestimated plucky Montpellier. This season, they’ve misfired throughout the Top 14 and were a shambles in Europe.

The first signs of dressing room discontent came in November when Berbizier fired his No.2, former All Black Simon Mannix, whose laddish charm had made him a natural ally of players and certainly more approachable than the aloof Berbizier.

The big bang came a fortnight ago when Lorenzetti’s most expensive employee, Sebastien Chabal, who had long been discarded from the match day first XV, delivered an “it’s Berbizier or me” ultimatum to Lorenzetti. The owner plumped for Berbizier and Chabal was duly thanked for his loyal service, handed a cheque, and instructed to leave the premises and not return.

It was at this point that Lorenzetti might have first realised he had misread the mood of the playing staff.  Since Mannix’s departure – ironically he was sacked at Colombes just minutes after their bonus point win against Biarritz which remains their most recent bonus point victory – they have won just two of their 10 games.  And Lorenzetti’s backing of Berbizier in the Chabal row appears to have been the catalyst which sparked revolution.

Last Thursday, a group of senior players claiming to represent virtually all the squad met Lorenzetti and demanded Berbizier’s removal. Berbizier is no minor player. He’s captained and coached France and also did a stint in charge of Italy. He sits at the top table of France’s most influential rugby figures and is known as a skilled operator and astute player of politics. But the facts speak for themselves. Despite a budget in excess of 20million euros and an owner with more financial clout than anyone in club rugby, Racing’s hopes of the play-offs and Heineken Cup qualification for next season are receding fast. But with five of their remaining nine league games at home and three of the four trips being to bottom half clubs, all is not lost.

Frankly, they could not ask for a better run-in and that’s another reason why Lorenzetti will recognise that the next 48 hours are crucial for the club’s immediate future. Having pledged to build a new 32,000-seater stadium complete with retractable roof (Arena 92) in time for opening in 2014, Lorenzetti is “in deep” with the Racing project. Too much is at stake to risk sacrificing it for one man. Mind you, sack Berbizer and it will represent a victory for player power. Feckless on the pitch the men in the ciel et blanc hoops would become monsters off it.

As I said earlier, it’s a dilemma for Lorenzetti with Lyon, Racing’s opponents on Saturday, the only obvious, immediate and likely beneficiaries.

ESPN rugby expert Martin Gillingham is the lead commentator for the broadcaster’s live coverage of the French rugby union championship, the Top 14. Visit espn.co.uk/tv for more information

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