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Mauricio Reggiardo, the current Head Coach of Pro d2 side Albi will take over the reigns of current Top 14 club Agen next season. Having worked miracles last season to save Castres from what was, at point point, probable relegation former Puma Reggiardo will be responsible for Agen playing in France’s elite.
Regards joined Castres in February 2015, coaching the club to survival. After 14 round the club was bottom of the table in grave danger. The club ultimately finished in 12th on 52 competition points, the same number as Bayonne. Castres survived, but only just.
After 17 rounds of the 2015-2016 Top 14 season Agen is sitting in 13th spot and is thereby facing relegation. The club is 11 competition points behind Stade Français who occupy 12th position but are expected to rise. For these reasons Agen’s changes of survival are low.
If relegated the club will attempt to earn promotion back to the Top 14 next season. Doing so has proven to be extremely difficult with a number of former Top 14 greats playing in France’s second division for a number of seasons before securing promotion. At present the likes of Bayonne, Biarritz, Beziers and Perpignan are cases in point.
Leading the competition is Lyon who are all but certain to finish top of the Pro d2 to earn automatic promotion to the 2016-2017 Top 14 season. After 22 rounds Lyon is 23 competition points ahead of the second placed Bayonne. The following four clubs will dispute the Semi Finals and Final with the winner also earning promotion to the Top 14. At present those clubs are Bayonne, Beziers, Aurillac and Perpignan.
Regard’s current club, Albi, is another to have played in the Top 14 in the professional era. Currently in 7th position the club is not out of the running, sitting four points behind Perpignan. The club is one of a number to have struggled to compete against the increasing power of big-city clubs such as Bordeaux, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Montpellier, Racing 92 and Toulon who have all won promotion and solidified themselves in the Top 14.
In leaving Albi, Reggiardo will be terminating his contract with the club ahead of time. He is under contract with the club until 2018. As a player he played ten years in France, nine of which were at Castres. When he takes over at Agen it will be his third season in charge of a professional club in the country.
