The La Rochelle captain spoke at length about the defeat suffered in Treviso this Saturday in the Champions Cup group stage. Disappointed with the result, number 8 is aware that his troops will have to raise their level of precision in the weeks and months to come to realize their profusion of energy.
His hot analysis: “We should do things more simply”
“It’s hard becausewe put a lot of energy into our match. And I think that at some point, we put too much into it. We have to be able to find the right balance between matches like the one in Toulouse and matches like last week and this one. We want to do so well but we need to do things even simpler, to make life easier. In any case, we made too many mistakes to win a Champions Cup away match, especially against a Benetton team who were playing for their qualification and who were going to leave everything on the pitch.”
The end of the match: “We played like idiots”
“It's like our meeting. We can't say that the guys didn't get excited. We showed intensity. But we hit a wall and we played like idiots. We need to settle down, work on our rugby and our precision, especially in the European Cup. We know this very well from having done it in previous seasons: it's precision that counts. this level.”
The performance of the defense: “We had holes”
“What's strange is that I have the impression that, throughout the match, we were OK. But we had holes at times, actions that we suffered from. And they did great well done. They managed to score and make it happen in these key moments. It will be interesting to watch this match again on video.”
His feelings: “I prefer this frustration”
“There is still frustration, like last week. But I admit that I prefer to have this frustration. It is on precision and on pure rugby that we perhaps made a mistake so that, in certain matches at the start of the season, on the contrary, it came from the fact that there was no energy, no attitude.”
-Treviso's performance: “I'm not surprised”
“I'm not surprised. We know their quality and we knew that it was a team that played a lot. They proved it by scoring 32 points. You still have to have quality in the squad to achieve this performance Congratulations to them.”
The sequel: “A showdown against ourselves”
“We have to continue to work. And work hard. We often say this. But things will end up turning around. It will go our way. We must not give up. It's a real showdown against ourselves Individually, everyone must question themselves because we can all do better. There is a huge trip to Toulon in a week. Then there is the vacation. the period of the Tournament which will be complicated. That’s when we’ll need everyone.”
His personal feelings: “I leave everything I have on the field”
“Personally, I enjoy it because I leave everything I have on the field. That, at least, is a satisfaction. Now, there remains this little grain of frustration that needs to be evacuated. But as I I said, things will turn around if we don't give up and keep going.”
