Woki: 'Everything said or written about our relationship is wrong'
France Grand Slam winner Cameron Woki has slammed the critics who claimed that a bust-up in his relationship with Christophe Urios was responsible for driving him away from Bordeaux and into the arms of Racing 92 on a four-year deal.
It was last month when Racing surprisingly announced that Woki was their new man, a statement at the time reading: “Racing are pleased to announce his signing for the next four seasons. The back row joins from July 5 as an additional player. The club welcomes the arrival of this international player from the Ile-de-France region, who will continue to highlight the fertile ground of the Paris basin for French rugby.”
The move was put down in the media to a failure in the relationship between Woki and his head coach Urios when the season unravelled for Bordeaux, leaving them knocked out of Europe by La Rochelle and beaten in the Top 14 semi-finals by Montpellier. It wasn’t as if the critics had nothing to go on - following the end-of-regular-season Top 14 loss to lowly Perpignan, Urios pointed the finger for the defeat at his team’s leaders, Matthieu Jalibert and Woki.
This resulted in the last few weeks of the season at Bordeaux becoming memorable for tensions between players and staff rather than results on the pitch. However, with the start of the 2022/23 season now just a few weeks away, both Urios and Woki have tried to clarify the situation that unfolded now that they have gone their separate ways.
The coach went first, suggesting last week when interviewed in RMC: "I realised, especially in the second part of the season which was difficult, that I must have taken on too many things. There was a bit of overwhelming pressure, which was probably lacking in the key moments, where I didn't find myself good. At certain times, I had to be much more lucid, better than I was. I wanted to share it with my staff and with the players."
This was followed this week by Woki giving his version of events as he got down to work at his new club Racing. In quotes carried on rugbyrama.fr, he explained: "My departure has nothing to do with Christophe Urios. Let's be clear. Everything that has been said or written about our relationship is wrong. Yes, there were tensions after the episode in Perpignan. If I decided to speak, it is to say that I regret my gesture during the playoff against Racing. This finger on the mouth generated bad vibes within the club.
“But I repeat, Christophe is not responsible for my departure. We keep a very good relationship. We had a big discussion before the semi-final against Montpellier. Behind, the tensions disappeared. At the end of the season drink, we had a long exchange again. This episode is now behind me."
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Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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