The Stade Toulousain manager warns: Castres Olympique will have to be respected in the semi-finals.
You find Castres, a club that you know well and where you trained…
Yes, but I’ve been gone for a long time. We can’t say that I spent flamboyant moments there. It is the first in terms of character and state of mind. It is undeniable and Pierre-Henry (Broncan) and his staff manage to breathe that. It’s still a team that is there and I find that its level of recognition is certainly still relative to a city of 80,000 inhabitants (40,000, editor’s note) but it’s a team that is present. When I see the boxes that we make on the ninth, tenth of the championship, Castres first, we do not do a lot and they sincerely deserve much more respect.
Is the CO a favourite?
We are not going to get into this game. Castres are first in the championship so if they still want to pass themselves off as little ones, it’s complicated all the same. You are first in the championship, it’s effective, it’s not Ugo Mola who says it. Afterwards, we come from very very far. I remind you that everything was needed. Honestly, on the mastery they have had for a few weeks, it will take an even better Stade Toulousain than against La Rochelle to beat them. The last matches they had to play for a month, a month and a half, were against Biarritz, Perpignan and Pau. They have a full squad while we still lost players. But we are going to hang on, as usual. We are going to prepare with what makes the strength of this club, namely not taking ourselves for others and respecting the people against whom we play. It will be necessary to face the Castres who are fresh as roach.
Against the Rochelais, you nevertheless displayed an incredible freshness…
When you have a team with an average age of 24, 25, the fifteen days or three weeks of recuperation that we had, without offending Biarritz, which most certainly allowed us to spare the organizations, that is worth gold. And today (Saturday), we realize that we respond more than present on the intensity. There were data and mathematical signals, but it must be recognized that this was reflected in the field. They are amazing.
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