After the defeat of the Toulouse stadium against the UBB in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup, the manager of the Red and Black waits for his team to be bouncing in Top 14. Where she always has a title to defend.
What feeling animates you after This defeat against UBB?
Ugo Mora.- We lost against a very, very beautiful team from Bordeaux who, with some fulgurances, in particular on the first try and that of return from the locker room, made the difference. These conceded tests are perhaps a little too simple to win in the semi-finals and we take five … We all know that it is far too much to exist at this level of the competition. Frankly, congratulations to the winners. You have to recognize when you have not found the solutions, even if I think that we are not far away repeatedly to be able to switch the match a little differently. As you come back, when they take the cardboard, you are marked, but behind, you resume the points. There are lots of small key moments of the match which will not necessarily turn in our favor. So I reiterate and I persist, well done in Bordeaux and we will, in any case for my part, supporters of the French club in the final of Champions Cup.
What influence can a match like that for possible reunion in the final phase of the top 14?
Already, we still have four days to play in the league. It is true that we are first, but the road is always strewn with pitfalls. We have a trip to Marseille (against Toulon) Next Saturday, so you might as well tell you that we will have to recover fairly quickly. Let us get our heads back a little to go back our title at stake, because we lost one of our two titles. We will therefore strive to try to defend the second, with obviously the need to digest all this. I had fun telling you, but I sincerely think it, when you win all the time, it is that you play a game far too easy. And this is the case today. We fell in front of a euphoric team with two or three test situations from fairly incredible flashes. Unfortunately, I think that, even perhaps in the 74th minute, if we manage to score on this highlight, we come back to five points, maybe the end of the match is quite different … We can redo the story, but congratulations to Bordeaux. It’s a team that has found solutions in this match. They strategically found a parade to counter us, perhaps bring us a little too quickly to the ground, perhaps bring us a little quickly in a rugby which did not allow us to put rhythm. We did not find the solution. We will be on vacation the week of the European Cup final, it will do everyone good, even if we would have liked to go to Cardiff 30 years later.
Honestly, I don’t have the feeling that there is a stadium player who has passed completely next to it. But collectively, we could not stem their dazzling.
-Your group was not spared from the seeds. Did he live this week before the semi-final?
It’s a secret for anyone. But I found the reaction remarkable from my players. They did not abdicate. Afterwards, there are key moments of the match on which we may have missed a little lucidity and application, with a lost touch at the end of the first half which is hyperimotant. There have been lots of little playing facts that did not fall on the right side. It is also linked to energy, what we could put. Maybe we left a lot of juice in the week, but sincerely, seeking excuses with the absent, in view of the players who were on the field, it would still be unwelcome. Honestly, I don’t have the feeling that there is a stadium player who has passed completely next to it. But collectively, we could not stem these dazzling and above all marked in times which could have perhaps given another way to the match. We have won a lot lately. We are not going to question everything because we get caught. But, however, we will look in the mirror. It is a bit of the quality of the team and this group. We will take the time to look at things coldly, clearly, and count on us to be a little more difficult to beat in a few weeks …
Read too
Rugby, Champions Cup: “We have to return to reality quickly,” warns Jefferson Poirot after the UBB victory
UBB-Northampton in the final, is this a surprise?
You have to have wooden TVs so as not to see that Northampton plays rugby well and that Bordeaux plays a lot in rugby too. I hope you have gone to the new generation of TV to realize that there is still quality in these teams (smile). Honestly, it’s a somewhat unprecedented finish. Again, without flagorneria on my part, I sincerely think that Bordeaux has done everything to access this final. We thought, perhaps wrongly, that we could continue our way to in this competition despite what happened in the week. The proof is that we have not always found the solutions. But, honestly, on the commitment and quality of our players, I will not question anything in question today. It is a very special competition that we all appreciate. We will come back, I think, much more strong. We experienced a funny journey when we went to South Africa. We did things that went beyond the sportsman. We have done things that haven’t always smiled at us this year. But, once again, there is a month and a half left by the end of June. And the objective is to be in direct semi-finals. And afterwards, if the spell helps us a little and we put the ingredients there, I think that this group still has qualities to assert in the league.
Interview at a press conference
