Top 14 preview - Agen

Welcome to Stade Armandie

We take an in-depth look at the runners and the riders of the 2005/06 Top 14 ahead of the new season. Today we tackle Agen...

AGEN

Last time around:

Les Agenais came storming into last season, winning six of their first seven games and taking the early championship lead, despite only scoring seven tries - fifteen less than the second-placed Perpignan. They then lost to Perpignan at home and never really recovered thereafter, even losing their probable Heineken Cup place to Clermont when they fell 31-8 there on the final day of the season. In Europe, the mid-season slump in form saw them only just squeak past Italian minnows Viadana in the Challenge Cup December before they crashed out to eventual winners Sale Sharks in the quarter-finals.

This time?

They are certainly unlikely to start as they did last time; with the exception of Brive in week 2, all their opponents in the opening eight weeks are France's Heineken Cup representatives! But if they can weather that, and the return legs during February and March, the team is strong enough to use the comparatively gentle run-in to mount a serious challenge for a Heineken Cup place at the very least. The Challenge Cup first round draw of Parma, Pau and London Irish should be manageable as well. The recent loss of Italian international lock Santiago Dellape for three months to a broken leg is a serious blow right at the off though.

Captain: Jean-Jacques Crenca. The 36-year-old prop leds Agen from the front, and his belligerent, unforgiving physicality is often the epitomy of Agen's general play. Capped 39 times by his country, there is little that he has not experienced.

One to watch: If he plays, you are hard-pushed to see him such is his speed, but he seems to spend so much time on the sidelines or out for disciplinary reasons that you would be forgiven for thinking you were simply mistaken if you thought you had seen him. Fiji's enigmatic flyer Rupeni Caucaunibuca is Agen's big weapon, even in the mud. Centre Sylvain Mirand is worth keeping an eye on as well.

In: Alessio Galasso, Nicolas Morlaes and Robert Froissard (coach) (Castres), Cezar Popescu (Tarbes, Romanian), Dave Vainqueur (Béziers), Julien Tilloles (Bayonne), Régis Sonnes (coach)

Out: Mathieu Barrau (Castres), Loïc Fior (Auch), Christophe Coro (Béziers), Sébastien Bonetti (Brive), Christophe Clarac (Auch), Julien Turini (Colomiers).

Colours: White and Blue

Club info:

Stade Armandie (12,000 seats)
1, rue Pierre de Coubertin
47000 Agen

Tickets: ¬22-30

Travel connections: Bordeaux international airport is less than two hours away, and low-cost airlines also fly very cheaply to Bergerac airport, which is no more than ninety minutes away. Agen has good TGV connections to Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Paris.