Pierre-Louis Barassi: “I’m going to Toulouse to continue to progress”
It was the day after Lou qualified for the quarter-finals of the European challenge that the young international took the time to confide. from his indirect contribution to the grand slam to his recent injuries, passing by his future departure for toulouse, he has, as usual, eluded no subject…
Your club qualified for their first European quarter-final on Friday evening, at home too. Enough to make the Challenge a real goal at the end of the season…
To be completely transparent, at the start of the season, we checked both competitions. Above all, we hadn’t said that our priority should go to the Top 14, and we had therefore given ourselves the means to play for as long as possible on both counts. The chance to have finished first in the group stages allows us to be in a position to potentially receive until the final, so we have all the cards in hand to achieve something great. But it is important not to be satisfied with it, and quickly switch to the deadlines of the Top 14, where everything is far from over. It’s up to us to stay the course.
It’s anecdotal at this stage of the season, but with this qualification, your team has once again marked the history of the club…
It’s super important to leave a mark, a trace of its passage. 7 years since and the rise of Lou in the Top 14, the club has achieved a lot of things and validated many stages, but there is still so much to do… More than ever, we want to mark the history of Lou and our History in short, because it is obvious that between the departure of Pierre Mignoni and that of two or three managers, this season will be the end of something.
The icing on the cake, you scored the winning try against Worcester a few minutes from time, when your team was beginning to doubt…
My test is a stroke of luck, clearly. (He corrects himself) Afterwards, it’s not just luck either: Léo Berdeu hits his dismissal very well, we organize good pressure on the fallout… It’s a stroke of luck, but we provoked it , so good for us. It is sure that this test did us good, because we had got into the sauce a bit on our own, so much so that during the transformation of the English player, I had started to wonder what was going to happen. pass in case of extensions. I’m glad we were finally able to have a more comfortable end to the game.
Overall, we felt your legs as rarely this season, with a lot of frequency of support, sharp races…
Frankly, I feel that I can still do much better. I’ve had a lot of injuries this season, but you always have to look on the bright side. At least I was able to store mental and physical freshness in anticipation of the money-time of the season. Hoping that this will allow me to perform as well as possible in the matches that matter.
Despite your injuries, you were recalled very early by the staff of the XV of France during the Tournament in the extended group. Haven’t these round trips been compensated for by delaying your return to form?
(He blows) On a personal level, I was especially very honored that the staff trusted me so early, when I had just returned from injury and had played very little with my club. I never imagined being called back for a single moment, so suddenly, it was only positive for me. I took everything there was to take. Funny thing is, my first call was on vacation. But since I had spent a lot of time in the infirmary, I needed to pace myself and train much more than I needed to rest. In the end, it was good for everyone so to answer your question, no, it mostly saved me time.
You attended the coronation against England as the 24th man. How did you experience the event and find your rightful place in those moments?
Considering where I came from, I lived it rather very well. I was happy for the guys, quite simply. Looking back, it was quite gratifying to be so close to joining one of the best bands in the world, if not the best in the world right now. It’s not as if we weren’t invited to a much weaker group… Here, we’re talking about a world top 3, at the very least. So the most important thing was to take advantage of the experience and find your place with the guys. It’s obviously not the same when you’re not on the pitch, but still, when celebrating, you’re part of the party. Because you’re invited, first. But also because you recovered there in your own way, so you live the thing through the group. This is where I realize that I have grown a lot: when I was younger, I might have experienced things in a completely different way. But after my few seasons of experience, I now know that one is far too short not to experience things in a positive way.
For this role of reservist, some have guided you well, right?
Gaëtan Barlot and Baptiste Couilloud, who made the grand slam as 24th, sponsored me a bit in this task! (laughs) No, enough, it was simply a question of making oneself available to the group, of being as diligent as the others during training or warm-ups, to make them work as well as possible. It’s a bit the same thing you go through at the start of a career, when you’re the young kid who joins a pro group.
You mentioned your injuries earlier. The one suffered against Perpignan in September must have been particularly difficult to live with, since it not only deprived you of the November tests, but also mortgaged your chances for the start of the Tournament…
Downright. This season, I injured both ankles, which had never happened to me before. Is it because we switched to a synthetic pitch? I even asked myself a lot of questions, if the truth is that we will never know anything about it, and that there is no point in asking what, whose fault is it… When it’s done, it’s done, it is better to integrate its energy on the continuation.
How did you get through this bad period, then?
I ruminated a lot, specifically. This is my last season in Lyon, and I want to leave on a good note. What we’ve done in the last two or three years, no one ever remembers. What we remember is how we left. I am aware that with these injuries, I am having an average season. But in the end, it doesn’t matter much that this average season turns into a good season, depending on our next results.
Your convalescence allows you at least to settle the question of your future, with your signing for the next three seasons at Stade Toulousain. Was this decision to leave easy to make?
Yes, in the sense that I had still taken it for some time. This is my sixth season at Lyon, where I played my first professional matches and to whom I will always be indebted. But no matter how much we constantly question ourselves and do everything to get out of our comfort zone on a daily basis, the best way to do this is still to put ourselves in danger by changing the environment. In terms of questioning, when you change club, everything is multiplied by 10. The original idea was there, and this choice is 95% sporty. The remaining 5% being that this choice allows me to get closer geographically to my family who is still in Narbonne.
It is said in the middle that a proposal from Toulouse cannot be refused…
It’s true that Toulouse is one of those historic clubs that leave no one indifferent. You can always refuse, of course, but hey… I took the time to think, I weighed the pros and cons, in the end, what won was above all this need to change air at this point in my career.
We mentioned your last Tournament above, your relationship “so close, so far” with the French team… Beyond the risk-taking that it represents, is this signing in Toulouse also an opportunity to change status, just over a year from the World Cup?
2023 is both very near and very far, in the sense that a lot can still happen, in just over a year and a half… I repeat myself, but what guided me, it’s this need for a change of scenery, to learn other things, to discover new training methods and new partners to become a better rugby player. In the end, a selection for the France team is only the consequence of what we have become as a player. Of course I want to take this course in the short or medium term, but what matters to me first is to end the season properly with the Lou.
As a former high-level athlete (handball player in the first division, editor’s note), did your father advise you in your decision-making?
He advised me, of course… Well, afterwards, he wasn’t totally objective because he also wanted his son to move closer to the family home. But basically, we were connected, which is why I am convinced that I made the right choice.
You speak earlier of certain departures that are looming at Lou at the end of the season, while the club has so far managed to keep its players. Does this create an end-of-cycle atmosphere?
Frankly, not at all. I believe that we all want the same thing deep down inside us, namely the desire to make the most of this end of the season and to go and find something we have chosen together. I repeat myself, but I am and will remain grateful for life vis-à-vis the Lou. I arrived at this club as a youngster, coming from Narbonne, which started to descend towards Federal 1. My only ambition at the time was to earn my place as a youngster, perhaps to play a few matches. of Challenge… So, when I measure the path that I was able to progress with Lyon until becoming a player who counts within the professional workforce, I can only pay the Lou. I don’t know if I would have succeeded in the same way elsewhere.
The real bad news, in your departure, is that you will now have to face Josua Tuisova as an opponent…
I admit that that’s the annoying point… I asked him to take it easy when we’re going to face each other, but hey, he also knows that it’s in his interest! He knows for a fact that physically I’m a bit bigger than him, so it’s not in his interest to look for the challenge either… (laughs) No, enough, Josh, I love him. It will be complicated to play against him but after all, in all the teams, there are phenomena of the same caliber. Waisea, Moala… The Top 14 is more difficult every year, and it’s not for nothing.
Little trick question, to finish: do you already have in the back of your mind the tour of the XV of France in Japan?
I don’t plan on anything. The only thing I know is that I want to go as far as possible with the Lou, in both competitions. Afterwards, if we unfortunately do not have to participate in the final of the Top 14, we will see that the staff of the XV of France will keep selected for the tour in Japan. But all that is still much too far away…