Paris (AFP)

Already a shock at high altitude: Lyon and Racing 92, two title contenders in the Top 14 make their comeback on Saturday (6:00 p.m.) during a meeting that promises on paper, despite an anxiety-provoking climate caused by the Covid-19 pandemic .

The LOU can say phew.

After registering a case of contamination three days before the meeting, the Rhone club was relieved Friday morning to discover that no other of its players was infected during the last tests carried out on Thursday.

If two additional elements had been contaminated, the meeting would have been automatically postponed, as stipulated in the health protocol put in place by the National Rugby League.

"The situation is unprecedented. Our daily life takes place in an anxiety-provoking climate, the opposite of what we want to develop in rugby: conviviality, sharing, exchange", regretted the general manager of LOU Rugby, Pierre Mignoni, at a press conference on Friday.

For his part, the opener Jonathan Wisniewski described a "somewhat heavy atmosphere" in a club which had already had to deplore six cases of contamination during the month of August.

But the LOU is in the nails at the time of making its comeback in Top 14 and can prepare the reception of Racing 92 in front of some 5,000 spectators.

The Ile-de-France club, also faced with a case of infection three days before the meeting, carried out new tests on Thursday: no new positive case, "the Ciel et Blanc told AFP on Friday evening.

- Without Couilloud -

The anguish is palpable within the Alto-Sequanese team.

"Even if I didn't have one (a positive Covid-19 case), I would be worried. In the current situation, there is reason to wonder. But what is important for us is to to think only of one thing, it is to play, recognized the coach of Racing Laurent Travers Thursday.

A new postponement would have deprived the championship of another of its posters, after, already, the postponement of the duel Stade Français - Bordeaux-Bègles at the request of the Parisian club which did not have enough suitable frontline players after a wave of contamination during preparation.

Lyon - Racing 92 is the duel between, respectively, the second and the third of the 2019-2020 season, when it was stopped in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The two clubs have also strengthened: the LOU notably repatriated Mathieu Bastareaud from his stay in New York, attracted the Australian international second row Izack Rodda while Racing 92 managed one of the most beautiful shots of the transfer window with the arrival of Wallabies star Kurtley Beale.

But the Lyon team will have to do without two of its scrum backs, captain Baptiste Couilloud and Jean-Marc Doussain.

- 10,000 spectators in Clermont -

Agen, either, was not spared by the Covid-19 with a new case in the week, which does not so far call into question the reception of Castres on Saturday.

The Rochelais Stadium has obtained good news: a prefectural exemption will allow it to welcome Toulon, led by its former coach Patrice Collazo, on Saturday in front of 8,000 spectators instead of 5,000.

Brive also obtained the authorization to increase its gauge and must receive Bayonne Sunday in front of 9,000 spectators.

This is also the case for Clermont, who will be able to play in front of 10,000 supporters on Sunday, during the other big shock of the first day against the Stade toulousain, defending champion ...

Program of the 1st day of Top 14:

Friday

Montpellier - Pau 23 - 26

Saturday

(3.15 p.m.) La Rochelle - Toulon

(6 p.m.) Agen - Castres

(6:00 p.m.) Lyon - Racing 92

Sunday

(8:45 p.m.) Brive - Bayonne

(9:00 p.m.) Clermont - Toulouse stadium

© 2020 AFP