“We had very little time”: Baptiste Jauneau and Harry Plummer, a Clermont hinge still in the discovery phase

It has been in the minds of the Clermont staff for almost a year, as it has been in the dreams of its supporters, and all the Auvergnats will finally see it in action: the Baptiste Jauneau-Harry Plummer hinge, between the captain of the Yellow and Blue and the New Zealand recruit announced for November 2024 , will take shape against Toulouse, this Sunday evening at the Michelin.

But while it has had nearly ten months to populate the plans of some and the hopes of others, the association of the two men will have had only three short weeks of training together to get to know each other before the arrival of the triple French champion. While Plummer did indeed arrive from the Blues at the start of ASM's summer preparation, in mid-July, Jauneau was in his teammate's homeland, playing utility for the Blues, during a tour that frustrated him.

"We had very little time for them to connect ," remarks Frédéric Charrier, the Auvergne attack coach. "It will take time for them to understand each other, to find those reflexes." So no one expects everything to be perfect this Sunday at the Michelin, and Plummer pointed out at the start of the week that in match conditions, he only had around forty minutes in common with Jauneau, during a pre-season meeting against Toulon (31-24 victory), last week.

"When I arrived, Harry had already blended into the group."

It was rather behind the scenes that it was necessary to refine the understanding between the young French international, 21 years old and 2 caps, and the ephemeral All Black, 27 years old and a cap coming off the bench gleaned as a reward for an excellent 2024 season with the Blues, during which he had carried Vern Cotter's team to the Super Rugby title. "When Baptiste was not there, I tried to prepare Harry, tell him what we expected from him, what he could bring to us compared to our problems of last season, and talk to him about Baptiste's personality, his game, his role in their association," explains Charrier.

Then, with the two players finally reunited in mid-August, the groundwork accelerated. "When I arrived ," explains Jauneau, "Harry had already melted into the group. So I just slipped in. I try to talk with him, he's a good listener, he wants to contribute, so sometimes he'll take me to watch videos." Additional hours in front of the screens are important so "they can each formulate what they expect from certain actions, what Harry's role is in relation to Baptiste, and vice versa," according to Charrier.

Above all, the two men had started to build a bond well before. "When he signed last year, I was there, I came to his meal, his family was there and we were able to chat," Jauneau recalls. "Baptiste's role, before being a scrum-half, is to be captain ," Charrier notes. "He has to make sure that Harry integrates into the group as easily as possible, because he has an important role to play and he has to be welcomed. For the association to be strong, they also need to create a relationship on a human level, that will allow them to find each other more easily on the field."

Jauneau thus had time to discover that Plummer is "a very simple guy. He doesn't take himself seriously, he also imposes himself a lot, through his experience and his desire to win ." The New Zealand fly-half, for his part, described his number 9 as "cheeky" this week, "naughty." And he quickly understood the importance of his partner in the club, publicly welcoming Jauneau's contract extension . "We already have a good relationship outside of rugby, we go for a coffee from time to time," he explained.

"Their partnership seems compatible to me ," Charrier projects after three weeks of work and observation. "Baptiste is instinctive, who takes a lot of initiative and Harry is a very good manager, who leads the team well, who makes his teammates play well around him. It could make a good balance between the two. Harry will be able to adapt, calm Baptiste when he gets excited, as well as use his initiative to trigger the team's play." So that Clermont can finally find a little of that bond that it has lacked in recent seasons.