US Montauban captain Fred Quercy, still very good on Thursday evening, delivered his analysis following his team's success in Agen (18-25). He paid tribute to his supporters and agreed that Sapiac had a great match away, in a derby.
Is this the perfect away match in your opinion?
It's a near-perfect away game. In the occupation we are not bad but we put ourselves in danger two or three times at the end of the match. For what ? I don't know. In my opinion, for nothing. But it's true that we're starting to have an interesting away team. We control our matches well which allows us to claim to win or at least take a point.
You sent the game at certain times this Thursday evening. Was this an instruction from the staff?
We don't really have any. We have no ban from the staff. He never forbids us from playing after it's up to us to know when to do it because the championship is complicated enough for us to decide to exhaust ourselves in our camp for nothing. In this match, we tried to play sometimes. Other times we tried to lock the game in. We put in some good tries and up front we did the job.
Is it in the first half that you win this match?
This first half puts us in good stead. We are fifteen points ahead but we set ourselves a little on fire at the start of the second half on a reception where we missed three or four tackles. These details will have to be corrected.
You managed to slow down the Agen rucks. Was this a point that had been particularly targeted during the week?
Not necessarily but we have totally different player profiles. We have everything on the team, that’s what’s interesting this year. Everyone does their job. There are two scratchers per match on the field. But the guys next to them have to tackle low otherwise it's not possible.
“I apologize to the supporters”
Beaten for the third time in a row in Armandie by Montauban, the Agenais took a big blow to the head. William Demotte took responsibility and decided to speak on behalf of his team.https://t.co/ODitSMG9Q5— RUGBYRAMA (@RugbyramaFR) https://twitter.com/RugbyramaFR/status/1857323329046118704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That’s three times in a row that you have won in Agen. Do you feel that there is a psychological ascendancy when playing Armandie?
I don't think so. Afterwards, we are perhaps Agen's bete noire. It was always difficult for them to play against us. There's no explanation, it's a derby. No match is the same. We may be their pet peeve but we have them too. We always lost at home against Béziers. Why teams struggle against some formations and less so against others is a mystery. Afterwards, a psychological ascendancy I don't think. But our supporters still help us a lot. These moments of communion are important to us. Even during the match, when we hear the stadium vibrate and we see that they are our supporters even though we are not at home, it is galvanizing.
The kicking game was also very good in this match…
Yes but I think we could have used it even more at the end of the match. Afterwards, this is not at all my field so I am not going to engage in analyzes in this sector. Especially since on the field, I don't often have my head up.
