The sky fell in on them. Heavily beaten at Pau (47-24) on Saturday on the 5ᵉ round of the Top 14, the Basques above all saw their treatment room fill up at a dizzying rate: six players went off injured during the match, leaving a decimated squad and a coaching staff in shock.

The nightmare began in the very first minutes with centre Guillaume Martocq going off with a shoulder problem, quickly followed by full-back Tom Lévêque. Captain Arthur Iturria then left his team-mates before half-time with a muscle injury, while back-rower Baptiste Chouzenoux took a severe blow to the head. In the second half, scrum-half Baptiste Tilloles had to be replaced by Maxime Machenaud… who, in a cruel irony, left the field in tears himself a few minutes later with a serious knee injury that could force the 36-year-old to end his career earlier than planned.

As if that were not enough, hooker Vincent Giudicelli was sent off after the hour mark, adding to the disorganisation of a side forced to improvise on the pitch. “I had never been through anything like that, back-rower Baptiste Héguy told Canal +. We finished with a prop in the back row and a hooker in the centre.” His manager Grégory Patat, crestfallen, spoke of “an afternoon from hell” and of “rugby not wanting us at the moment“, with a prop finishing at 8, a hooker at 6 and a centre pairing made up of a full-back and a back-rower.

But some good news: Patat is set to extend

Despite a good first part of the season, Bayonne are seeing their options shrink before their eyes, in every line. The medical staff must now establish how long the many injured players will be out, but several absences could stretch over several weeks, or even several months.

The day before the match, Baptiste Germain had already had to withdraw at a time when the Bayonne treatment room was already full: Tevita Tatafu, Luke Tagi, Ignacio Calles, Swan Cormenier, Pierre Castillon, Alex Moon, Alexandre Fischer, Rodrigo Bruni and Herschel Jantjies. The right moment for Clermont, Bayonne’s next opponents at Jean-Dauger?

On the good news front – because there is some – the contract extension of Gregory Patat. According to Sud Ouest, he should sign a deal until 2028 with Aviron Bayonnais. An announcement that has been awaited for more than a month and a half, after interminable exchanges between all the parties. While the agreement looked settled in early September, the back-and-forth never stopped. There were notably questions of compensation, legal clarifications and administrative details. A sign of a slightly fragile balance, born in particular from the appointment of Laurent Travers as director of rugby.