MHR travel to Vannes on Saturday with a front row to rebuild. Two of the three positions are hit by long-term absences, announced on Thursday.

Haouas has surgery, out for three months

Mohamed Haouas has undergone an operation and is expected to be sidelined for three months. The 32-year-old prop is therefore unlikely to return before December.

His game time last season shows what Montpellier are losing and what they are not quite losing: 19 Top 14 matches, but only 7 starts, for 560 minutes. Haouas had become a rotation player more than an automatic starter.

Uelese, the biggest loss

Jordan Uelese’s case is different. The Australia international hooker is set to be out for several months, with no precise timeframe given.

Here, the gap is immediate: 19 matches last season, 17 of them as a starter, and 1,360 minutes. He was the club’s first-choice hooker by a distance.

Wardi and Bézy not yet recovered

On top of those two absences come two players still recovering. Reda Wardi, who arrived from La Rochelle this summer to anchor the loosehead side of the scrum, is not yet available. Nor is Sébastien Bézy.

Montpellier therefore head to Brittany with four experienced players sidelined, three of them forwards.

Opponents short-handed too

Vannes will not be at full strength either. The Brittany club’s appeal was rejected and they will have to do without scrum-half Simione Kuruvoli, suspended for the first three rounds.