By winning their first match at home since October 13, Karim Ghezal's men finally left thirteenth place. And give themselves the right to breathe a little, even though nothing was simple, starting with direct conquest…
Finally, you have unlocked the home meter…
Yes, it's something that has been on people's minds for a long time. Even if we had taken points against Toulouse and Racing, there was still the fact of not having won since October 13. It was important. At half-time, I was a little harsh with the players: we were 14 points apart, I told them that we should not replay the same second half as against Toulouse, where we were 10 points ahead. I told them that if we made a mistake, we were going to get a yellow card and find ourselves in a tight match. This is what happened… Afterwards, there is still a lot of solidarity, there are many things that need to be corrected.
How can we take a step forward now?
What you need is to find consistency. If we want to see what's above, if we want to move up, we have to do series. For two years, this team has won or lost games at home and lost away, or lost at home this year. There, at least, we are on a small series. I also want to remember that we used a lot of players, there were 9 who returned. With a little more confidence we can move to the right side. I think that today, with winning the house, I really felt like a group that had released a little trauma. It feels good, we'll continue. […] Remember what I said when I arrived here: we want to find a feared and respected team.
Being feared and respected begins with conquest. We cannot say that the melee, among others, was there against Usap…
Front line and second line stories involve spending time together. I'm very happy to have the players I have, I wouldn't like to have any others. That's what's most important and that's what I told them. I think this group can do great things but for that, they have to spend time together. Let them want together, and let them work together.
What did you think of the choices of your players at the end of the match, who preferred a penalty for a hypothetical offensive bonus point when simply taking the points could have deprived Usap of the defensive?
I have already said it: I am with my players. When they make a bad decision, I make a bad decision. When they take a good one, I take a good one. In fact, what I wanted was for us to stay at their place. The more possession we had against them, the more chance we had of winning. At least we weren't exposing ourselves at home.
France
Rugby
