At the end of a not really exciting match, which Olympic Biarritz won against Nice (16-0), the third wing line Aitor Hourcade, who played his first match under his new colors, expressed his feelings.
Aitor, you played your first 30 minutes in the BO jersey, who once again did not concede a test at home this evening. What are your feelings?
Before the match, I was a little apprehensive. It's been a while since I played, but as soon as I got on the pitch, all the stress went away. I'm happy, I tried to bring my freshness, by running around. I didn't touch the ball too much, but in defense I still did the job. In the end, I'm happy with my first and the fact that we won.
How have you lived these last few weeks? You didn't have any playing time in Bayonne and you had to wait again…
There was frustration, yes, but I was patient. On the one hand, all this allowed me to better assimilate the game plan, to be clear on the sidelines or in the game. In any case, in Bayonne, I was not playing. I knew that here, sooner or later, I was going to play…
Do you remember, above all, the good defense this evening or the average offensive performance?
In attack, we didn't scare us too much, but in defense, Nice didn't worry us too much. We didn't take any points. So yes, it may not be good rugby, but in the end, it wins. We are happy to have achieved this victory. Certainly, there wasn't too much content, but it's matches like this that mean that in the end, we might be in the top six. We should not take teams like Nice lightly. She has just come upstairs, her teeth are scratching the floor, and for our part, we did the job this evening. Now, we are going to prepare well for the week, before going to Colomiers to try to make a move there.
You replaced Dakuwaqa, but you played six. Was this planned?
Yes, I wasn't supposed to play eight. I trained all week in the third wing line. Afterwards, if we have to play eight, it will be with pleasure.
You said a little earlier that you were apprehensive. On what, exactly?
On the contacts, the rhythm. It had been seven months since I last played. Training is good, but it doesn't reflect the game. I felt a little below in the sequence of tasks, but I have to get back into the rhythm in training, then it will work itself out during the matches.
What did you do to compensate during these seven months?
I questioned myself, I tried to find weak points, work on them. At the end of training I did high balls, tackles, a bit of everything. I didn't give up, I had the hope of playing again. We are professional rugby players, but we are not just here to train. We want to play. It's our pleasure.
You didn't play in Bayonne, but we were told that you never gave up there. Was this your leitmotif?
In Bayonne, I never missed a training session. If I had to be 24th man on the scoresheet, I was there. I never complained. It's not my habit to complain. I didn't accept the situation, but I didn't have much choice. On the one hand, it forges…
In the 55th minute, the score was only 3-0. Did you have any doubts at that moment?
No, we didn't really doubt it, because Nice didn't necessarily worry us in attack. In defense, we were good. Of course, we didn't manage to take the lead directly, but we didn't give up. We tried to get some rhythm in the second half and it worked.
How do you analyze the difficulties on the sidelines?
We saw all week that Nice had a very good touch. We weren't too surprised not to have the balloons. We were still good in defense, we bothered them.
