Outclassed at the end of the first period, the Corréziens at least had the merit of reacting to avoid being spanked, by symbolically winning the second period.
Let's be clear: heavily overhauled after their series of four consecutive victories, the Corréziens only had an illusion for around twenty minutes at the Stade des Alpes, deprived by their lack of collective benchmarks of their usual strong points: scrum, touch, defense and balloons carried. However, this defeat did not have the same taste as the one conceded last year (40-29) in the mouth of manager Pierre-Henry Broncan: “Even if there is another defeat, I think we are growing. We have a different strength of character. After half-time, last year, we completely gave up. This time, we gave ourselves the way to get something else We weren't rewarded, by the way… In the end, they don't take any bonuses, we don't either, the British ranking hasn't changed. a defeat but we can build on it.”
Broncan: “The players wanted to do well but alone”
A resolutely positive speech, even if the Brivists had difficulty digesting this fatal quarter of an hour at the end of the first half. “We won the second half but there you go… Taking twenty-one points in such a short time was too hard to make up for with a defensive bonus point,” summed up scrum half Hugo Verdu, relayed in cruder terms by pillar Simon-Pierre Chauvac: “It's annoying to leave with nothing from here. It's not all negative, but we woke up a little late.”
“The problem with the ten-fifteen minutes we suffered was that we played rugby that I don't like.where we want to save the homeland, Broncan whispered. I told the boys at the break: they wanted to do well but to do it alone. However, rugby is a team sport. You can never do it alone.” What reason to regret having left players to rest, when the move seemed playable against a decimated Alpine pack? “It's easy to say afterwards, smiled Broncan. When we lead 8-0, the absentees didn't bother us. We had injuries after the Béziers match, after four consecutive victories. If we didn't put emulation on this trip, I don't know when we could have done it.” All that remains for Corréziens is to take responsibility, by stocking up in front of Agen before the holidays.
