Even if his team missed its start again, the third wing line Thomas Hébert preferred to remember, after the match, the five points taken and the quality of the balls carried by Biarritz, large winners of Nevers (43-14).
Thomas, you made your return to competition this evening. What is your first reaction?
I’m happy, because it’s been two months for me since I was sidelined, after the ankle injury during the match in Béziers. I was hungry for rugby and when it ends like this, it’s even better.
The BO won a match that it had started badly, conceding a try in the first minute…
We have protocols to try to come back to the score. In these kinds of moments, you have to cool down to move forward, but you have to erase these starts to matches, because we repeat them. The teams will rely on this and that is normal. We must stop the bleeding from these attacks. In a match like that, it has no influence, but in Montauban or Soyaux, at the end, we realize that there are points missing.
What are the technical reasons for these missed starts?
I don’t think they are due to a lack of commitment. It is both an individual and collective responsibility. There is a mental trigger. I think there is a warm-up to be done before the match. We have to try to work on it. This is something to erase, because it can cost us dearly in the end, but to answer the question, I think it is, above all, a mental story.
Is it a lack of attention?
It could be poor communication, a missed tackle. These are slags that make us take somewhat stupid attempts. There is a scratched ball, no one is on the short side and we take this try. These are given points. Today, we take the offensive bonus, so the job is done, but of the fourteen points we took, I think we could have conceded fewer.
What did you think of your balloons?
We work them hard during the week. Rémi Bonfils gives us a lot of keys to advancing through mauls. It’s pleasant. In a match, when you advance on a maul, it reassures, it refocuses the team, it puts its head back in place. This evening, we take a try and, behind, we score one on a carried ball. It puts ideas back in place and makes the opponent doubt. It’s important.
You didn’t concede a single point in the second half. Is this the other satisfaction of the evening?
Yes. Halftime is meant to sort out the little things that were missed in the first half. This is what we did well.
What was the speech at the final whistle?
We are satisfied, because it remains Nevers, which is not a small Pro D2 team. She puts a lot of aggression and commitment into the rucks. It’s nice to hurt a team like that. Afterwards, there is a little frustration, because there are points that we should not concede, but the five points taken make us forget that a little.
You played 70 minutes. How did you feel about this cover?
At half-time, Boris asked me how I was. I felt very good. It’s true that in the first half we didn’t have much to defend because we took first-hand attempts when we didn’t have the ball. I had good legs, so Boris let me continue. In the second half too, I was good. I’m happy, everything held up. I tried my best to reassure myself. It’s done. So much the better.
And you had the right to a little ovation…
Mathieu Acebes came out at the same time as me. I don’t know if it was for him or for me (laughs).
You have difficulty finding regularity in the results on this block. Is it important for the leader to be co-leader again?
Of course, that’s reassuring! After last week’s match at Soyaux, I’m not going to say that doubt had set in, but after a failed match like that, you wonder where you went wrong. There, at least, we are sure of our strengths and we will have to continue on this, while settling our starts.
