Winger Pierre Courtaud looks back on his team’s encouraging victory against Provence Rugby (39-20) in a match where the forwards were decisive.
What was said in the locker room at half-time, when your team was trailing by one point (19-20)?
We told ourselves to be more disciplined, to be better organized on our defensive line. In Valencia, we had been able to take the points, to be calmer. That’s what we also tried to do against Provence in the second half. We also often took the lineout because we felt we were performing well on our mauls. The forwards really did a great job. So all we had to do was continue!
We feel that the automatisms are coming back, don’t we?
We spent two complicated first matches searching for ourselves, struggling to produce our game. We are starting to find ourselves. We do not yet have our reference match. It is clear that we can do better. But we are getting closer. This is visible in the score against a team that is aiming for the top 6, like us.
You found yourself twice down to a man and you held on. Wasn’t that one of the turning points of the match?
We managed to control the balls well at the back. They occupied a lot and that worked out for us because we also occupied and scored on their mistakes. As soon as we were fifteen, we produced a better game than them and were on top.
The three quarters perform behind increasingly competitive forwards…
Our forwards are doing a better job week after week. Against Provence Rugby, they were at their best. Behind, we only scored one try, at the end. Behind too, of course, we want to score, to produce play. Obviously, it irritates us to see the forwards score all these tries! But in the end, the most important thing is the victory and the five points.
Isn’t this a reassuring success for the future, with Béziers establishing itself as one of the big names in the championship?
We have two away wins in this block. There is still one match to play away from Béziers. The objective is to go and get it to make up for the match lost against Biarritz. We proved against Provence Rugby that we are capable of it.
With always this determination at the end of the match…
We perform well in the final minutes. This was seen against BO, where we almost scored on a final move. In Valencia, we also went for the victory at the end. We showed it again against Aix with the help of the public who helped us a lot.
