The manager of the Toulon Rugby club Pierre Mignoni returned to the short defeat (21-17) suffered by his men at Chaban-Delmas against UBB. According to him, there is not such a big gap between the two teams.
Pierre, what feeling is dominant this evening? Pride in the fight your men led or disappointment in saying that you could have gone for something more?
A bit of both… I think we come back quickly in this second half and we make them doubt, while the first half is not good at all, on the strategic aspect in any case. But indeed, it leaves regrets. It's a shame that we got this yellow card (from Charles Ollivon, editor's note). I would have taken the hold-up at the end of the match!
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How do you explain this return in the second period?
I knew we would come back in this match. When we look at the first half, there is too much waste, especially on the kicking game. We put ourselves under pressure on our own. When we kicked the ball, we got rid of it even though we wanted to do the opposite. We lacked strategy between our 30 meters and their 40 meters. Whereas they were strategic, in the first half in any case. So it makes sense to lose. Not to mention that we were undisciplined, but logically since you don't have possession. There is energy, but it is not efficient. The second half was much better but still, almost every time we scored, we came back behind. It caused us a lot of problems, even when we walked past.
Teddy (Baubigny) told us that you wanted to approach this second half of the season with a lot of ambition, that you were pretty much where you wanted to be. Do you share this opinion?
We came here to challenge ourselves against a team that has been further ahead than us for several years. We really wanted to see where we were. This evening, it doesn't seem to me that we are ten lengths behind Bordeaux. We are behind them, quite logically given tonight's performance, but I think we are not that far. We have to learn quickly, we have to improve these essential details to kill these matches. So far, this evening, that hasn't been the case.
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Isn't it satisfying to see that it was a whole squad of 30, 40 players who put the RCT in this third place and not a core of 23? We think of Jules Danglot, Joe Quere-Karaba to name but a few…
For us, this is not very new. We've been doing this since the start of the year, we're trying to give everyone playing time so that we have a fairly homogeneous group. That's what we're trying to have. I would have liked to have taken all four points tonight, to be honest. But that wasn't enough. We were too imprecise. Honestly, I don't think we absolutely deserve this victory more than Bordeaux. But like I said, these matches, you have to be able to pull off hold-ups like that.
Can you tell us a word about Oliver Cowie, which premiered tonight?
Obviously, a special moment for him. I told him he was in the group, he was happy and surprised. It's not to please him, he deserves it. He's someone who did the pre-season with us. He is mainly in the 12 position. He is a very athletic, physical boy, capable of having an interesting kicking game. It's really, for me, a second 10 with great qualities. We will definitely see him again later. He will still progress. They are young people like Joe (Quere-Karaba), when you tell them that they are playing, they have stars in their eyes. That's what I want to see: boys like that, who died of starvation. It's great. They will push the old people (laughs).
