Thibault Giroud has left the Union Bordeaux-Bègles (UBB) earlier than planned, with his departure occurring nine months before the end of his contract, which was set to expire in June 2027. According to Sud Ouest, Giroud had been in conflict with his management for several months and had been on sick leave since the summer. L'Équipe also reports a disagreement regarding a clause in case of a title. Giroud's move to Bayonne was already being prepared. In December 2025, L'Équipe indicated that a pre-contract had been signed for an arrival at Aviron in 2027. His departure from Bordeaux brings forward the question of whether Giroud will join Bayonne's coach Jean-Dauger before next summer. For now, no early arrival date has been announced. Since his arrival in 2023, the UBB has played the Top 14 final in 2024 and 2025, won the Champions Cup in 2025 and 2026. Giroud did not build this progress alone, but he was piloting a central part of Yannick Bru's project: performance and the coordination between physical preparation and rugby. His method had a real identity. In 2024, Cyril Cazeaux described a shortened but immediately intense preparation, designed notably to save energy over time. A year later, Giroud chose Faro to start the pre-season of the European champion, with a reported temperature between 38 and 39 degrees. The detail is almost secondary, but it draws the portrait of a technician who adapted the load to the schedule rather than repeating the same program every summer. For Bordeaux, the operational impact is nevertheless less brutal than the word "dismissal" suggests. Giroud had not participated in the summer restart and the UBB already had around him Ludovic Loustau, Cyril Gomes, Emmanuel Espiasse and Bertrand Dedieu. The Bordeaux physical machine was therefore already running without its performance director. The real project now concerns the medium-term coordination and the identity given to this sector after three years built around Giroud. In Bayonne, the situation is almost the opposite. Arnaud Baratchart took charge of the physical preparation this summer, Antoine Kneblewski arrived from Racing and the staff has been largely reshaped around Laurent Travers and Gerard Fraser. Bringing Giroud in this season would allow integrating earlier the man chosen to lead performance from 2027. But this would also require redefining a hierarchy established only a few weeks ago. The separation seemed written for June 2027. It is completed as early as September 2026. Bordeaux can now finally close this file definitively. In Bayonne, however, a decision that belonged to next season suddenly comes into this one.