Valence-Romans fly-half Lucas Méret travels to Grenoble in this year’s Pro D2 derby. He says his people are progressing.
With a little hindsight, how do you explain this start to the season which is far from the expected expectations?
We lost games that we had a chance of winning. We ultimately lost due to a lack of precision, and perhaps sometimes due to a lack of desire to surpass ourselves. Last year, most players discovered this Pro D2, and wanted to benchmark themselves, to prove things to themselves. This year, the group knew a little more what to expect and thought that doing the same thing as last year would be fine… except that each team progressed. We are making progress but we are just a little behind. I think we are on the right track. We have to continue to stay together, to stay positive because there are also plenty of good things. Every game we lose, we had the chance to win.
Does that mean that unconsciously within the group there was this idea that after last season, it was going to be less difficult for you?
Less difficult, I don’t know. But I think we were perhaps a little more sure of ourselves and confident in our strengths. Maybe at key moments the team thought it was going to be easier in the sense that often they came back into matches and regained the advantage. When it was necessary to have that extra soul and go for victories, we did not manage to hold on to the match. This desire to seek a little more is what we are finding at the moment. We saw it in particular in the last action against Agen at 14 against 15. We must capitalize on that. Before, we were unable to win these matches in the money-time and this time we managed to hold it. It’s a good thing because it shows that we are capable of doing it and that if it happens again, we will know that the die is not cast and that we can still win these matches.
How are you approaching this big second block of six matches, starting with the derby in Grenoble?
Frankly, we go there with a lot of appetite, with the desire to do better, to progress and to fight in each match. We know that the block will be difficult, but at the same time, these matches are also full of opportunities to catch up and get back into the season correctly. In Grenoble, we inevitably expect a big fight. We will have to play a serious match, be much more patient, hold our back and manage to score on our highlights to hope to bring something back. But we go there with a lot of appetite and then a derby is always something special. I find that collectively and individually, we have raised the level of commitment and intensity during the week. I am convinced that over the coming weekends, this will inevitably be felt.
