Top 14: Toulouse also says “win ugly”
Published on :
Toulouse (AFP)
Author of a faultless accounting with three successes in three games, the Toulouse Stadium, already the only leader of the Top 14, remains hungry for the game and wants to show more “panache” Sunday against Clermont on the 4th day .
His team arrived to plant six tests contreulon (41-10), in an Ernest-Wallon stadium all to its joy to find its champions of France and Europe, when Clément Poitrenaud delivered a very cold first observation of the meeting .
“Certainly, we score tests but zero passes. We are not that dominant (…) It’s far from perfect”, judged the demanding coach of the Toulouse backs.
The victory brought back in pain from Montpellier (17-15) last weekend only made this impression: Toulouse wins but can do better.
“There is a little too much waste at the moment, in all sectors,” said defense coach Laurent Thuéry at a press conference on Friday. “We could very well have lost in Montpellier, there would have been nothing to say.”
The stainless winger Maxime Médard evokes for his part a start of the championship “a little weird” which is not completely satisfied either the locker room: “We are frustrated because we have difficulty in linking the phases of play”.
– While waiting for the “click” –
The reduced preparation (four weeks and only one friendly match) of Toulouse, who were entitled to a little holiday abatement at the end of an exceptionally long last season, would partly explain this lack of fluidity.
“This is only our seventh week since the resumption (of training). So obviously, all is not perfect, we expected it”, assures Laurent Thuéry.
“We all hope to produce better rugby, with panache, so that the players have fun first and please everyone,” he adds. “It will come quickly I hope.”
Maxime Médard attributes to him “a little fatigue and awkwardness” to the pursuit of land work at the start of the championship, and recalls that the departure in the offseason of the “skills” trainer Alan-Basson Zondagh, “an important element staff “, has still not been compensated.
The return of the game à la Toulouse “will take the time it takes”, relativizes the rear or winger of 34 years, who, while waiting for “a click”, does not want “to spit in the soup”.
Even without the collective flamboyances that have long been the hallmark, the Toulouse Stadium continues to stack up with success.
Unbeaten since May 15 in all competitions, the most successful club in France also claims to “win ugly”, with pragmatism and fighting spirit, as in the final stages of the European Cup and the championship last season.
“It’s very good in the state of mind. We must keep it”, greets Laurent Thuéry. “We get drilled from time to time, but we have the ability to catch up with the blows. The players hang on and don’t want to give anything.”
Best defense of the Top 14 after three days, Toulouse just has to let go completely in attack. That’s good: his shocks against Clermont often give rise to unbridled matches.
© 2021 AFP
