Maxime Lucu appeared before the press after the final lost to Stade Toulouse. The scrum half of UBB and the French team confided his sadness after his team’s heavy defeat.
Maxime, your first reaction after the heavy defeat in the final against Toulouse?
It’s very difficult to accept. To have such a season, to give a lot of strength to reach the final… It’s difficult for the club and the supporters. And above all, what predominates beyond losing a final is to miss out. To suffer this humiliation. It’s hard.
Your manager Yannick Bru confided that he quickly felt that you were at the end of your rope. Did you have the same feeling on the pitch?
They scored quickly on clean shots at Stade Toulouse. We knew they were going to want to put a lot of pressure on us because we had one less day of recovery. We took tests too quickly. At first we held on but we ended up exploding. And then we saw the Shield disappear little by little and we gave up.
You said before the match that UBB would have to show its best face to win, but we have the feeling that it was the worst face of your team in the season…
It was complicated… Very complicated. We were told over and over that we were playing a big team. That’s the truth. There’s a class difference between them and us. They have a lot of finals and titles to their credit. But we also have to highlight the season we had, which few of you have had. (the journalists) have emphasized. We missed out but that doesn’t take away from what we did this year.
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Do you feel like you’ve reached a milestone this year?
This defeat must fuel us to come back with a lot of certainty next season. We have progressed a lot. UBB had never been to the final, and we will have to build on that while analyzing what we lack compared to a team like Toulouse. Once again we missed out against a team that wanted one more title.
Your tears, what did they convey?
You play a final, you dream all week of lifting the Shield. I didn’t want to think about these things this week because it’s putting pressure on yourself. I gave everything and I wanted to bring the club to a French championship title. Losing like that hurt me a lot. The season has been nervous, there have been a lot of things, the World Cup, the 6 Nations, and to end here like this is difficult to accept. Today I wanted to be rewarded and that wasn’t the case.
Will you think about the 59 points you conceded for long?
Yes, after 59, 40 or 30, for me it’s the same thing. We gave up because we failed to do the right things. This is not our state of mind. It’s difficult to give a lot and see that in the end, nothing works. We all gave up.
What were the words of your manager Yannick Bru towards you?
Yannick has brought us a lot this season. I came back from a very complicated period, you know that very well, and the words he had, everything he did for me during the season, it put me back in the saddle and it proved to me the man I was. He told me not to lower my head.
