Toulouse (36-13): “The most successful match of the season”
USAP won its first offensive bonus of the season by beating Stade Toulousain 36-13 this Saturday during the 17th day of the Top 14 championship. The Catalans are doing a huge operation in the fight for maintenance. For its part, Stade Toulousain remains immersed in its doubts and has not won in the Top 14 since the end of November.
Ugo Mola, Toulouse coach
Congratulations to USAP for its values. She gave us a lesson in many sectors and therefore a rugby lesson. Kudos to this team. It’s easy for us in these moments to find the culprits. We tended to victimize ourselves a lot and we’re going to try to put our heads back together. It’s up to us to find what made us strong. Our dynamic collective is currently absent. Everything challenges us, there is not a sector where we have been good. We believed in it at the end of the first half but we didn’t score and we added the fouls and we took a try and the match was over.
“We’re going to stop victimizing each other. We have to find the right tone and stop making the front pages of magazines and newspapers.” -Ugo Mola
I’m obligated angry but I’m not going to pull or smack on something that was brilliant not too long ago. We have to find the right tone and stop making the front pages of magazines and newspapers. A rugby player must remain a rugby player, a coach too. We were waiting to hit rock bottom and that’s it, here we are. Regardless of the absentees, the selected ones, we will stop victimizing ourselves and we will move forward. Once again, congratulations to the USAP.
Patrick Arlettaz, USAP coach
At least today we looked alike, we did things we were able to do. Our minimum is to at least be at our best level. We didn’t even dare to dream of these five points against Toulouse. It’s the face I like because it’s the one my players are happy with. I grumbled because last week we didn’t give the right image.
“We showed that we weren’t so dumb.” -Patrick Arlettaz
On a smaller squad than the other teams but when you play forward, it also becomes a little easier. If we want it to go well, we need maximum commitment. We showed that we could do stuff, we showed that we weren’t so dumb. We did not win our maintenance today but we showed what we could do. Players showed they were wrong last week and that they had learned their lesson.
We don’t have the finest qualities in France but we are fairly homogeneous. It’s not a coach who does the coaching, it’s the temperament of the players who return. Yes Toulouse was diminished, and of course I’m tempered, but we still achieved a feat because I want the Toulouse team of the day all year round. We played two notches above what we are worth. We have good players who want to show that they exist.
“We have good players who want to show that they exist […] And of course the feedback from the public played a role.”
We need everything to ourselves and of course the return of the public has played a role. He got us interested. This start to the match, we could not imagine it like that. During the week, we just thought that why not, we could win. The public is there to remind the players that they are there to help them fight. Even if there had been a defeat, I would have been proud of the players, sincerely, because I recognized my team.
Lucas Dubois, USAP winger
I don’t think we expected to make a start like that. On one set our game up. The return of the public gave us this extra soul. Each initiative, we managed to score points. But even with this advance, we knew it was not won and we had to fight.
“On my tryout, I went there on instinct.” -Lucas Dubois
On the try I scored, I had to see it again, but I went there instinctively. I think it’s the best match of the season. Against Lyon, we had not managed to put our game. We are never safe from missing twice in a row. We met today, it feels good.
I haven’t always played so today I really wanted to have fun, and knowing that the public was coming back to the stadium boosted me too.
Tom Ecochard, scrum-half
“The start of the game was a bit like a dream” – Tom Ecochard