the essential
Before the Bulls’ reception on Saturday (9 p.m.) in the Champions Cup, the Castres hooker, Pierre Colonna, notably returned to the announcement of the withdrawal of Jeremy Davidson, last weekend, and the first two training sessions of the week .
Was this victory against Pau (24-19) on Saturday decisive to get back to the top of the rankings?
Yes, it was decisive because if we had lost this match, we would have looked down. We must not forget that the bottom of the ranking is not far away. We must not think we are saved thanks to this victory because there is still everything to do.
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What do you remember from this meeting?
That when we are connected and we play together, we are capable of doing beautiful things. But also that we remain our worst enemy.
You are referring to this end of the match during which you scared yourself. How do you explain it?
We controlled the match but we made some inaccuracies that we must manage to erase.
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Top 14 – Castres-Pau: The CO chased away doubts with great kicks
Time for the Champions Cup on Saturday, with the Bulls hosting. In the event of a poor performance by Stade Français, a success will offer you qualification for the final stages, the stated objective isn’t it?
This is something we set ourselves at the start of the season. We are still on track to get there. Saturday, it will be a very big match against a very strong team with a lot of internationals. She has another rugby, which we don’t know. This is the first time in history that Castres Olympique will play against a South African team so it will be a special match. It’s exciting because these are players we’re not used to facing.
Last weekend was marked by the withdrawal of your now ex-manager, Jeremy Davidson, who became advisor to President Pierre-Yves Revol. How did you hear the news?
It was announced after the match (against Pau) by the president. I think he hadn’t told us about it before so as not to destabilize us. It sounds weird but that’s the professional world.
How did the first two training sessions go this week?
It went very well, as usual in itself. Yannick (Caballero, sideline coach) and Karena (Wihongi, in charge of the scrum) will take care of us (the forwards) for the moment with an eye from Xavier (Sadourny, the new head coach), who will responsible for making us play ball.
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INTERVIEW. Top 14 – Castres-Pau: “We needed this victory”, CO manager Jeremy Davidson relishes success against the Section
More personally, you have 9 matches and especially 3 tries this season. It’s not nothing though…
These are forward attempts, it’s just my name that stands out. It is especially the forward pack who score and who are rewarded for their work.
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REPLAY. Castres-Pau: the CO wins at the end of the suspense against the Section and relaunches in Top 14! Relive the match film
In which sector do you believe you have progressed recently?
I think I worked on the key well. I put a lot of effort into it and today it’s paying off. We have to continue because it’s never perfect, like in scrum and in my activity in the game.
