Guest of the ‘Moscato Show’ this Friday onwards RMCPhilippe Saint-André reacted to the strong words released by Maxime Mermoz this week.
“It is sad for Maxime Mermoz to publish such a story eight years later. I think there’s a real malaise in him, he has to find his way back to him after rugby … In Toulon (where Mermoz played), the starters were Mathieu Bastareaud and Matt Giteau,. Bastareaud was also a starter in the French national team, Wesley Fofana was one of the best three quarters in Europe and we also relied on Gaël Fickou, Rémi Lamerat and Alexandre Dumoulin. The role of a coach is to make choices… I have been making choices for almost twenty years, fortunately some players are not happy, because they are competitors who want to start… ‘Fufu’ will be angry with me for life and is normal, but has intelligence, respect for the hierarchy, respect for the institution. I work with him every day (today he is an ambassador of MHR), I know I hurt him but my role is to make choices. I didn’t just make good choices. When I was manager you (the media) accused me quite often and not only did I have consistent choices but I tried to do the best I could. »
Described as “coward” and “baltringue” by Mermoz, Philippe Saint-André concluded: “The word ‘coward’, I have problems. First of all from my personal and family history. The word “coward” in a family of resistance fighters… (His grandfather, Philippe Saint-André, was shot by the Germans in the Vercors in July 1944). Then, on my role as a coach… I got slapped in the face and never ran away. I took 60 points to the face with the French in the quarter-finals (62-13 against the All Blacks in 2015) but I responded to the media, took full responsibility for this failure and shut my mouth. The word ‘coward’ cannot pass. »
