If he relished the success (14-12) against Périgueux, at home, and the place of co-leader, the coach of the Carcassonne forwards, Eric Escribano, did not mince his words in the post-match press conference.
What do you remember from this complicated match against Périgueux?
The first thing is that there is a victory. But it is not deserved. Périgueux would have deserved to win this match 1,000 times over. It's our worst match. You have to be honest.
What do you blame your players for?
The boys didn't do what was expected. And we got through it completely. We cannot produce such a performance in front of our supporters, our partners. It's so sad to see what we've done that I'm really sorry for everyone.
We cannot produce such a performance in front of our supporters, our partners
Périgueux is also to blame…
It's a very good team, which is progressing and will, in my opinion, be in the Top 6 without any problem. So, in what position, I don't know because it's a very tough team. It's been a while since I've seen this. The Périgourdins had already shown this last year and I believe they have reached a milestone. I believe that Didier Casadéi and his staff work a lot on the advancement, the hardness of the confrontation line and they win all the duels. We endured all the duels, we weren't there at all, and at the finish, they put us in difficulty.
How do you explain all these technical errors?
I think we played very, very poorly at the end of the match. There is also an unprecedented hinge when we find ourselves with Nils Chaliès in 9 and Jordan Puletua in 10. And it becomes very complicated for the team, without benchmarks or ability with the kicking game. So it's true that we want to move the ball, produce more play, but at times, we have to be much more lucid, be able to play with the ball to send pressure to the opposing team, to that our counterattacks are more effective. But I would say it's a reflection of our training week. We play like we train. We didn't have a good week of training and we paid for it.
Especially since now two consecutive trips are planned to Bourg-en-Bresse then to Langon…
Two trips that are difficult. Bourg-en-Bresse which is a team which is looking for itself, which has a superb squad. I hope we will go there with ambition. We have to be able to reproduce the same match as in Massy. I believe that our strength also this Friday is our defense. It was the first defense against the second that met. And we didn't take a test. And that, I believe, is still very important. Afterwards, our downside is really discipline. This can't go on any longer. We don't listen to the referees' instructions, some players just do what they want. We will have to sanction certain players in the way they do things, because we cannot be penalized that many times. We took more than fifteen penalties this evening, that's not normal. We cannot resolve this, and yet we will have to resolve it quickly. We will not achieve our objectives if we have all these penalties.
Some players just do what they want
The Munilla-Michet pair on the flank, with what hinge in Bourg-en-Bresse?
We are going to plan ahead. Gabin Michet took a blow to the head, so we will wait for the diagnosis from our doctors. If it's a KO, he will be rested. Johnny McPhillips is not about to resume, not until next week, I would say not before the Langon match. So we'll see, we'll try to be imaginative. Thomas Munilla has a shoulder that is out. So I think it's an accident. This evening we have a boy called Nils Chaliès who once again showed us the full extent of his talent. If there is only one player who stood out in this team, it is Nils Chaliès. He is able to play 9, 10, 15 without asking any questions. This boy stinks of rugby and victory is his tonight. Lukas Doyhenard is out due to a dislocated finger. So we have a lot of damage behind us. We of course have Naivalu who is suspended. So we will have to recompose our three-quarter line. That’s what we’re here for and we still have staff. So we're not going to complain. But it's true that at number 9, it becomes complicated since our two number 9s are injured this evening. There is Kenjy Bayer. We have always trusted young people. We will see what solution we will take during the week.
