After being in the game for more than an hour (22-18), what taste does this defeat (32-18) leave you with?
It seems a strange result… It’s true that, for a while, we’re in the game. Every time they score, we manage to quickly come back behind. But, in the end, we are frustrated because we are still giving too many gifts. It’s a shame because it’s not forgiving in a high-level match like that.
You are 15 against 13 for seven minutes (49e-56e) and you can’t score to go ahead at 19-15. Is this the turning point of the match?
Quite. We are not scoring at this moment, we will have to analyze why cold. In the heat of the moment, it’s always difficult to gain perspective on the situation. But it’s a key moment where we can’t take the score. We also have a second key moment where we almost scored at 22-18. It is still a possibility to take the score at an important moment of the match. These are several moments where we failed to stick the knife in and hurt the opponent.
Did you also feel that the Brive bench, with six forwards, weighed on the end of the match?
Certainly. But we had a good game, except that we were penalized too much in conquest. We took 12 penalties in the match, the majority coming from the scrum and from balls carried from Brive. We knew they were conquerors in that regard, they proved it again in this match. As soon as we did what we had worked on and put in place, we managed to counter them. But as soon as we were not careful, we were punished. It’s a shame.
“I am certain that this match will help us progress and make us grow for the future”
Despite the conditions, you remained faithful to your desire to play hard, rewarded by two winger tries…
(He cuts) Yes, but you have to do it wisely. Playing is of course our DNA, it’s what we’re looking for. But you shouldn’t always play in front of the defense in difficult conditions, especially when there is an aggressive defense. It took us a little time to correct that. We did it afterwards and we see that as soon as we manage to play against the opponent, we manage to be very effective, to make them make mistakes, to have chances and to score. This must still be an area of progress in the return phase.
You lose again against a top 6 team. Isn’t that your glass ceiling in this first leg?
It’s true, but also it must be said that we played for almost all of these top 6 teams [NDLR : le SUA a seulement battu Dax (20-10) à Armandie]. We are at the dawn of a project, we are a young team. We are trying to build our game, to build our group. I think we showed great strength of character. There were several moments where we could have given up, but instead we moved forward. We had a great mood for this match, except that we have to stop giving gifts because we are paying dearly for it. I am sure that this match will help us progress and make us grow for the future.
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