The Olympic Biarritz did not find the solution in Angoulême for this 8th day of Pro D2. Beaten 34 to 22 this Friday, October 25 at the Chanzy stadium in Angoulême, the Biarrots paid for their lack of aggressiveness as well as their delicate first half hour, with a 24 to 3 conceded. Due to lack of vigilance, they also “offered” trials to their opponents. However, in sequence, Boris Bouhraoua's players managed to shake up the SA XV, returning to six small points a few minutes from the end of the match. But, as in the face of Agen or Brive recently, the Biarrots have paid dearly for their indiscipline. “We suffered too much”, sighed after the meeting Boris Bouhraoua.
France Bleu Pays Basque: We felt your team was beaten in terms of aggressiveness. How do you feel this evening after this defeat?
Boris Bouhraoua : Yes, beyond the pure word of aggression, we were not alert enough. We suffered too much, we didn't catch the rebound, we suffered two, three rucks… This puts us in a certain form of excitement. There is also indiscipline (eleven penalties conceded). In reality, we endured everything, especially in the first half. We saw that when we were all together at the same time, on the same effort, we came back to the score, so we were capable of doing it. But we weren't consistent enough in our effort.
24 to 3, at the half-hour mark, it's too complicated a start to bring back points from this trip.
I'm still with our troops this year. No scenario scares us. Now we have to be more consistent. The feeling is that, in fact, we gave everything. Give a lot of points. We made the match very easy, in the first half, for the opponent and from there, it was complicated to exist. In the end, there are points missing. We came back a little behind the score, but they were more consistent in their effort.
When you return from the locker room, you are back at 9 points. However, like against Brive, you stumbled against this defense, without a solution. How do you explain it?
Yes, we didn't manage to edit our sequences. Today, with the weather conditions, it wasn't necessarily through the passing game that we were going to find solutions. Maybe we lacked alternation in our game between knowing how to use the central game, the kicking game… Maybe we remained a little too readable, but those were difficult conditions . They managed better than us in terms of their off-the-cuff play.
Despite everything, you are 6 points 8 minutes from time, 15 against 13. Did you believe it at that moment?
We felt that maybe it could work in our favor. We always believed in it, the players and the staff, we always believed in winning this match. Afterwards, it was mainly the discipline at the end of the match which cost us dearly, with three penalties in the last five minutes… The matches are never finished. The proof, in the end, a multitude of things can still happen in five minutes. But, like our match, we were not consistent enough in our effort.
Have you seen individual performances that raise questions for you?
We are collectively disappointed. Me, the players, I never blame them, since the guys, in the end, they went there. Our players at Biarritz Olympique this year are not lying. Afterwards, it is on the game that we lose this meeting, on discipline, on consistency, in effort. But, no, I'm not disappointed. I am disappointed with the rugby match, but I am not disappointed with my players.
In the “process” that you wish to put in place, does this defeat not cause concern for your staff? Isn't this a stopping point?
No, it's not a setback, it's a rugby match that we lost. Afterwards, you have to think about it. Well done to the opponent, they won, well done to them. Now, for us, it is the reflection on our match that we must have, but not on the process or on the ranking, the calendar… There, the reflection will be on how we go about winning the next match.
