Tom Ecochard is now a historic and emblematic player of the USAP, he has worn the first team jersey for more than eleven years. For the first time, he dreamed of the final stages until a few minutes before the end of the season. It’s unusual of him but at the end of the match against Pau, his emotion was very strong when talking about this elimination and the end of a season which remains very significant on many levels.
This is the question: “Did you personally enjoy yourself this season?” that the scrum-half was overcome by emotion : “It was incredible. I had emotion on the pitch and I still have it. Honestly, the public was incredible this year, I had some great moments and I want it to continue. There are players who stop, like Sipa (Taumoepeau), like Mathieu (Acébès), there are many, many players who count. This is the case with Boris Goutard, you see he hasn’t played for six months but he has always had an incredible character. It was some strong moments. Today, there is something that has been built but everything is always called into question depending on the results over the years. In any case, the players who wore the jersey this year all did honor to the coat of arms.”
“It’s 100% a feeling of disappointment that dominates, later we might be proud”
As the great competitor that he is, the feeling that dominated at the end of the match remained disappointment for Tom Ecochard. After two PRO D2 finals, two access matches won, the scrum-half is inevitably frustrated at having come so close to a big achievement: “It’s a shame in such an important match that we had prepared well to start so badly, we lost 21 – 00 in fifteen minutes. That’s what kills us because we come back into the match well afterwards. We then make too many mistakes, we lose more balls in touch. Too many mistakes and inaccuracies which mean that we cannot win a match at this level away from home. Disappointed, very disappointed. Afterwards, of course, little by little we will meet again to take stock and we will perhaps be proud of what we have done but there it is 100% a feeling of disappointment which dominates..”
Ultimately this last game finally felt like the USAP season. The comeback could have been fantastic, the USAP believed in it but finally gave in: “We will inevitably realize that we ended up playing in the qualifier even though we had lost our first four matches. We were last with zero points. Of course this start to the season has left its mark on this group. But, this group was built after these four matches. It wasn’t easy, no one believed in us, we played badly and lost, we were bad. This group came together and worked hard. Nobody gave up. Everyone worked hard to experience great moments and that was the case, there were a lot of them this year. We would have liked to know one more and continue for another week.“
The USAP finished this season in tenth place, its best ranking in TOP 14 since 2013. On July 15, the USAP players will resume training to prepare for a new season which will have to confirm the one which has just ended. to end : “Let’s remain cautious, we were in a World Cup year too, this will not be the case next season, but let’s remain ambitious too.“
 after this Top 14 season: “all the players did honor to the coat of arms”){kind=link}