Dominant for three quarters of the match, superior in the scrum, the Catalans let their first away success escape on details.
It’s an understatement to say that this second defensive bonus point brought back on the road this season will leave a bitter taste in Usap for a long time. “We’re going to take it anyway, because we know that everything counts, philosophized Franck Azéma. How many times have we come home frustrated, six or seven points behind? There, we are able to bring home at least one point. I’m not going to jump to the ceiling, but I’m happy with the way the guys performed and their reaction after halftime.” The problem? It is precisely that it took this reaction to bounce back after twenty fatal minutes at the end of the first act, during which Usap conceded all of its points to the Lyonnais. All on details, which their manager logically had difficulty digesting given the total domination of his team in a sector of the closed scrum which could (should?) have proved decisive given the weather conditions… “In terms of the build-up to the match, we were pretty much in the game but we didn’t control the end of our first half well in the territory, squeaked the Catalan manager. If we had been fierce five meters from our line, if we had broken their momentum by going up hard and putting them on the back foot, we would have said that we were courageous and brave in defense, but there you go…”
Inevitably, with this in mind, Franck Azéma could only rail against certain decisions of his players, like this scrum in which Devaux was penalized (21st) while his scrum half James Hall had plenty of time to extract the ball, prelude to Lyon’s highlight which led to Shvangiradze’s try. Also this penalty conceded for an avoidable “escort” in front of Dupichot, and which allowed Berdeu to widen the gap (27th), or these two balls lost behind phases of conquest which allowed this devil of Couilloud to press the Catalans until in their 22 meters (10th, 36th). “There weren’t many errors in the end, Azéma agreed. It’s the story of two or three choices, which seem like details but which are very important when you add them up in a match.” “We attack the match well but, defensively, we take tries too easily, sighed scrum half Tom Écochard. We tackle too high and we give in quickly, after only a few minutes of play… In the second half, there was a lot of improvement, since we didn’t take a point. But the damage was done.”
Sterile penaltouches
All the more so as, unlike the Lyonnais, the Perpignan players did not manage to find the crack in the opposing armor with no less than four ineffective penalties. Obviously an area of work since beyond the first missed opportunity (forward on the construction of the maul), it was with two annoying carried balls that the meeting ended, while victory seemed within reach tomorrow. “It reinforces the disappointment, we felt that there was room to do something elsecontinued Écochard. At the end, it was messy, with this maul which advanced but which ended up in touch…” “We had two opportunities for carried balls in the first half on which we did not score, same thing in the second, while the Lyonnais took their two chances in the first period, summarized Azéma. The difference is there. This is what we need to address and improve in the coming weeks.” To finally take this step away, which will allow the Catalans to breathe a little easier…
Senegal
