In a very suspenseful end to the match, La Rochelle opener Antoine Hastoy twice had the match ball at the end of his right foot. After the final whistle, he admitted his great frustration, he who had nevertheless shown his advantage during the first hour for his return to the maritime starting XV.
We saw you getting treatment on your shoulder. How are you ?
How are you. A little groggy, we’ll say, but as is often the case after matches like this. It was hard, but we’ll recover well, we’ll be fine.
What is your feeling after this short defeat?
There is better. We had intentions, we put in what was needed, maybe not enough. Or, not all the time. Because we could score, we had several chances, especially in the first half. We are obviously disappointed. I had two match points and I’m very disappointed with that.
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Ronan O’Gara said that in the cold, the ball is harder to kick and that your fifty meter penalty is equivalent to a sixty meter penalty…
Yes of course. There was a bit of wind against it, it was cold, but I think it was the right solution because we had difficulty in the scoring areas. In the end, we had one last round on the drop and I got too close to Tawera (Kerr-Barlow). I wanted to play on speed and it wasn’t the right decision. The drop is well hit but, as I said, I was too close and too easily counterable.
Your manager also said that, in this match, you were not that far from Leinster, Bordeaux-Bègles or Toulouse. Do you agree?
I think before this match you could say we were far behind. There, I believe we are on the right track. There is still a lot of work and confidence to be gained, but we are on the right track in any case.
How did you experience the start of the match?
We attacked him well. We lead 3-0, they come back and, at 3-3, there are a lot of chances that we miss. We’re on their five meters for a moment and we can’t score, it’s a shame. Then, we take this test, we know that they are good on this type of launch, but I think we still have to do better on our defense. The test hurt a little in the first half. But we knew how to remain constant in our intentions. This is what you have to remember. We finally saw a little speed from our three-quarters or even in our lanes. This does us good for our game.
What are you still missing?
The little precision on the last pass, for example. It will come, you have to persevere. In a 50-50 situation, it doesn’t necessarily work out for us but, with work, it will. We have to remain confident. We are all disappointed but we have to use this match, see what we are capable of doing.
Treviso took the defensive bonus point from Bristol and is still in the race for qualification. How do you approach traveling to the Benetton pitch?
It’s almost the Italian team. She plays very well with the ball. It’s up to us to be good in defense. Theirs, on the other hand, is the opposite of what Leinster offers. We have to build on what we did offensively. Our big quality as a team, for a while, has been our defense and we must be able to impose it next weekend.
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Champions Cup – “Happy one day, unhappy the next”: the opinion of Midol de La Rochelle – Leinster
Personally, you tried to put a lot of speed…
Yes, that’s where I can show the best image of myself. By playing rugby, without thinking too much. I have to have confidence in myself. The work is done all week to know where the spaces are. Afterwards, you have to adapt on the pitch and believe in yourself.
Did you have fun?
Yes, I had fun. But in the end, it’s complicated… If I come out a little chewed up, that means I tried things.
Experiencing failures, like you at the end of the match, is part of the life of a scorer. With experience, have you learned to put things into perspective in order to quickly change?
I think that tonight and tomorrow, it will still trot…. It’s normal. Afterwards, like every time I’ve had failures, I’ll just go back to work. A week ago, it smiled. And the following week, it’s like this… It’s the role of scorer who wants that. We must not stay fixated on this. I’m obviously disappointed, especially for the team, not to have been able to give the victory because I think we deserved it.
Recently, Ronan O’Gara said that he almost broke you, that he had been very hard on you, but that he realized he was wrong and changed his approach. How did you digest it?
I don’t particularly want to talk about it. It wasn’t the best weeks of my life. We moved on.
