A contrasting season for the Lions de Savigny in 2025. Expected, sometimes worrying, never really where they were expected. The start of the championship? Below, clearly. The team struggles to find its rhythm, the benchmarks are slow to establish. Then comes the trigger. At the Challenge de France, the Lions show their claws: regained intensity, liberated play, and in the end, a title that relaunches the entire dynamic. We then think Savigny is launched… but consistency is lacking. The Francilians ultimately miss the playoffs, letting slip a qualification that seemed within reach. It’s hard not to see, in the background, the ups and downs related to their field, which disrupted the season and contributed to these variations in pace.
2026 could well change the situation. If all teams will continue to play in Savigny, the elite group will set up its base on the superb field of Chartres — a significant asset to aim higher. At the heart of this project: a man. Leader, benchmark, engine of the collective. Meeting with Ivan Acuna.
BTVF : So, Chartres is your new home?
Exactly, we’re going to play in Chartres this year for all home games on a magnificent field that is also lit and will surely allow us to play games at night. However, our training sessions will be held in Savigny
BTVF : Looking back on the 2025 season, what is the prevailing feeling?
We gained a lot of experience because our roster is quite young. We showed that we have the ability to adapt to the environment. The work we did to be physically and mentally prepared for the start of the season was not as difficult as expected.
BTVF : Challenge and championship, then European Cup, so that makes 3 possible objectives this year?
Of course, it’s always the goal, and that’s why we’re playing and that’s why we’re looking for a high level. The goal is to win as many games as possible in all competitions, one after the other.
BTVF : This probably requires having a different recruitment, so what have you done for this year?
We’re stabilizing our team this year. Pena and Oroszco are still here, no particular additions of other foreigners who come just to play, even for the European Cup. For our game, it’s a simple rule: throw as many strikes as possible to let the defense do its job. For batting, we need to seize the key moments, and that’s what happened to us last year in the Challenge de France, especially in the semifinals against Montpellier, which was decided by a single hit. For the European Cup, preparation will be the key, we think about it at every training session.
BTVF : For the championship, you start with a trip to La Rochelle, which didn’t go well for you last year?
We’re more prepared than last year because our team, as it is today, with a stable core, will experience its second year of competition. I remain the manager and I’m a player, but that’s all, I’m not the captain, I’ve delegated to Amoros and Coste the role of proximity with the players, both in easy moments when laughter is good and in more ‘clutch’ moments when we need to regain concentration.
BTVF : On the broadcasting side, do you have ambitions this year?
It’s not yet certain, Savigny can probably handle it, but also the Chartres club may invest, it will surely be a nice complementarity.
BTVF : There is less and less communication from the clubs, and Savigny communicates little about its club and its players?
It’s all volunteer work with its limits. In fact, if we don’t know much about the other teams, we don’t worry too much, but anyway, we don’t expect revolutions, we know the financial and volunteer limits of each team. We know that Rouen has played the Japanese card, we know that Béziers has a strong ability to recruit good foreign players, we know that Toulouse uses a lot of the Latin diaspora, which I am a part of, for La Rochelle, every year they have at least five foreigners…
Moreover, the friendly matches don’t mean much, because often the foreign players arrive very shortly before the start of the season, or even a little after. For PUC, nobody knows much, they’re back in D1, in their place, and that’s good. We trust our players from the pole. We also want to offer games at 7 pm on Saturday on the lit field, which will allow teams to arrive later and fill the Chartres bar. We have 80 kilometers between our two stadiums, so it’s quite easy for our team too. We just need to get used to the sun’s orientation on this new field.
D.C.
