Matthias Haddad-Victor may confide a great frustration – at the height of his match –, it is difficult not to say that the defensive bonus won at 14 in the Tarn (28-24) is a good thing in the construction of the season Rochelaise. Where the Maritimes had not been able to bring back anything from Toulouse, Saint-Sébastien (against Bayonne) and Montpellier with their leaders, this time they reversed a trend that was very badly started at the break of this double (28-6 , 12 penalties to 3, one yellow card for nothing). Annihiling the effect of a red card suffered by Aleksandre Kuntelia in the 52nd to the point of having the match point in the 80th…
Indeed, after coming back to 4 points in the 78th via a ball carried by Quentin Lespiaucq, the Yellow and Black restarted in front of their in-goal against 13 Tarnais, sweeping the width three times before captain Dillyn Leyds served Oscar Jegou over 22 meters. A relay from Teddy Thomas further on, Thomas Berjon cannot catch the ball on the halfway line while the CO is in dire straits. A new dangerous action in a second period contrasting with the initial difficulties of the Maritimes.
While the Rochelais, faced with a strong wind which upset the teams in turn, did not manage to leave their camp, suffered from the high balls, the scrum and the opposing game, but also to offer solutions to the carrier of ball and play fast, returning from the locker room changes everything. Even at 14. This time, the indiscipline is in Tarn, the speed and the free races are stadists. The problem was therefore not the absence of many leaders, Castres can attest to this, unable to recover its initial momentum (20-3 in the 18th) and score the slightest point after the 38th.
“It would have been foundational”
“There is still a little frustration. But we cannot blame the energy of our players, salutes Sébastien Boboul, in charge of the maritime attack. We tried to draw on our resources to seek this victory. But we were too far behind at half-time to be able to hope. 12 penalties, it was not possible. Against the wind, too… At the break, we told them to use a little more intensity. Against this team, you need possession. He missed a little bit. »
“We weren't really worried. We wanted to believe in the plan and just erase the little errors”
“We knew we had a lot of self-sacrifice and character,” adds Matthias Haddad-Victor. We gave them a bit of full marks but we weren't really worried. We wanted to believe in the plan and just erase the little errors. We then played with a lot of speed, we were good in the rucks. We had players who had this grit to achieve a result. I remember Dillyn saying, when we got the red card, “the story would be wonderful if we won”. It would have been foundational for our performances outside of the moment. »
La Rochelle will therefore have to settle for a bonus before hosting Vannes and attacking, with its Blues, the Champions Cup in Bath, the leader of the English championship. “We are going to rely on this second half and try to erase the first, which means that we cannot win away,” notes Boboul. Maybe at 15, we could have turned the match around at the end. But honestly, it didn't show that we were 14. We had the ability to move the ball, play with contact and make it live. »
Notes
7/10 Haddad-Victor, Sorin
6/10 Jegou, Danty, Douglas, Latu, Thomas, Seuteni, Hastoy, Favre, Lavault, Kerr-Barlow, Bollengier, Berjon
5/10 Leyds
4/10 Kaddouri
