How do you live the period and the season?
Already, it is an atypical season, compared to the context that everyone knows. Then, in relation to the results, it begins to touch us and reach us in our pride. We always have the same regrets and the same frustration at the end of the match. That’s why we are really very disappointed. But we won’t give up. And what is good and reassuring, let’s say, is that we are all in the same boat. We have been warned for a long time that we are going to prepare for a maintenance race. We have twelve games. It’s a mini championship with three or four teams. This is the goal of the whole group and the players preparing for Friday’s game.
Have you already experienced a season like this?
No. Losing so many matches with so few points, arriving in the middle of the championship and realizing the task and the fact that you have to play maintenance, it’s disturbing, because we had much higher claims. We realize that it is absolutely necessary to maintain the club. It’s a tough season for everyone, and it’s tough for everyone.
In this team full of talents, some feel that a soul is missing: what do you say?
Necessarily. We see that we have a lot of experience in the team, players who have played at a high level or who have a lot of selections. It is therefore difficult when the mayonnaise does not take and the group does not manage to come out with victories, and on the contrary with a lot of frustration. Since the start of the season, the observation has been the same: we often drop games in the last ten minutes. It starts to do well ! We want to change gear. And to regret victory. It would do us the greatest good. Confidence is difficult to find in these times of doubt. We will therefore focus on collective values and those of those who will be around us to save the club.
Are you speaking more now?
Of course. These are delicate moments, we are not used to them. We are training very hard, but we are going through difficult times. At the same time, it allows us to remain humble, to say that we are lucky. To regain victory, it will take a lot of humility, work, and then remain united, because these are the values that will prevail. I don’t know what the future will bring, but what is certain is that everyone will have taken a lesson in life and rugby in relation to this kind of situation. So it is always painful to live, because we spend delicate moments, whether at the level of personal and collective questioning and in relation to our daily life. It should be emphasized: like many people, we are confined at home, so we only think of rugby, we no longer have the means to take our mind off things. We can no longer make a restaurant, a movie, see the world. This does not allow to relativize, to think of something else. But suddenly, we are focused and focused on this task that awaits us.
We are in a small group now, some have joined the France team. Good for them, it will give them a breath of fresh air. The group has been reduced, and if we are not united, it will be difficult. But I can promise you that on what we felt this afternoon in training, we are united and we will need everyone.
The thirteenth place you occupy is synonymous at the end of the play-off season with a Pro D2 club: is this play-off in the back of your mind?
To say that the maintenance will be acquired beforehand would be pretentious and presumptuous, given the results, knowing that we have only three wins since the start of the season. We know it’s a possibility. But we will do everything over the last twelve games to climb the ranks and play our mini championship with Bayonne, Pau, Castres and Brive. We know that the clubs above us also had difficult times, but that they managed to string together two or three victories to give themselves some air. Before that, we’ll look for a first one. This will allow us to gain some confidence. We will build from that. The awareness is total, we are now waiting for actions to remedy what we have not done well since the start of the season.
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