the essential
Toulouse rugby players qualified for the Champions Cup final this Sunday, May 5, by dominating the English Harlequins at the Stadium (38-26). Atmosphere, satisfactions, grievances… The “red and black” manager gives his feelings about the performance of his men.
Ugo Mola, can you describe the feelings you went through?
I think we controlled our first half overall and returning from the locker room is a bit tricky for us. We experience a lot of offensive situations, we no longer get our hands on the ball, a few outings result in fairly easy balls, a few missed tackles when there is no big danger and behind that, it restores a dynamic positive for Harlequins and allows them to get back into the match. Dorian Aldegheri’s contest is more than important since we have a try in advance and that allows us to get out of this situation. Behind, there is the yellow card on Antoine which ends up hurting them since they lose their hooker, one of the best contesters of their team and as a result, we manage to get our hands on the ball a little. But it’s a second half which is not necessarily controlled and which is also due to the quality of the opposing team. Everyone was a little stuck on the 47 points that we had scored in the first leg, we will say that we scored 6 fewer (9, Editor’s note) but we took a little more. And at this level, we must not leave too much ammunition on the way and the alternation in our rugby may have been lacking.
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What did you think of your players’ performance in the first half in the ground game?
There are still two rooms, two atmospheres between the two halves. But I believe that teams also have the right to adapt and we isolated ourselves a little easily in somewhat favorable situations. I had the feeling that we wanted to manage more than play and that, frankly, we don’t know how to do. So that’s a little lesson for the future.
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How did you feel about the atmosphere at the Stadium?
Since the start of the season, we had checked the possibility, – by doing the job while speaking a little vulgarly because until proven otherwise, we are not going to the mine, – of making an appointment with our supporters on a potential semi-final. In the meantime, we still had to beat good teams, starting with Racing and Exeter. But it’s nice to have been able to give this as a little gift because frankly, these are important moments for the club. Even if we are among those who have the opportunity to experience quite a bit, it’s never nothing to play a semi-final at home and particularly in this venue and with this audience, so thank you again to all our supporters, thank you to the players who did what was necessary to be there and then let’s not deny our pleasure of playing a European Cup final in three weeks.
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You spoke before the match about strong choices in the team composition. Can you come back to the choice to establish Thibaud Flament?
The problem is that rugby is not played with 18 or 20 players and at some point, when I am lucky enough to have such players available, it is always a headache, a pain. -heart, it is also performance that predominates, strategy. I could see that you were not convinced of it but I spoke to you about this end of the match which was likely to be complicated and therefore of the need to have game leaders on the field worthy of the name, capable of holding their rank and I think it was quite favorable. Notably the return of Thomas (Ramos), the first line as a whole and obviously that of Richie Arnold. You know, when a coach starts the season, he always wants to create his typical team but that doesn’t exist. What exists is a good group and a very good group. I’m lucky to have a very good group, I hope we will have the opportunity to prove it, maybe with another lineup for the European Cup final like that, that will give you three weeks to think (smile).
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And what about Thibaud Flament?
Thibaud, when he’s like that, he’s world class. There is no concern about the quality of the boy. Afterwards, we also know that he is a huge impact player because he proved, especially in 2021, that he was capable of giving us this ability to change the course of matches. Manny Meafou did it in his time. It’s delicate, everyone wants to start a match and particularly a European Cup final but we will have to make choices, explain them and adopt this strategy. I believe that opposite, we have a coach who in terms of squad choice strategy who is a master in the matter, like Nienaber (Leinster, world champion with the Boks in the fall, Editor’s note) who during the World Cup dared to try different teams in each of its compositions from the quarter to the final. So we will draw inspiration from the best (smile).
