Maxime Médard (Toulouse): “No one pushed me out”
Maxime Médard (Stade Toulousain winger or fullback, who announced his retirement at the end of the season): “We won, that’s the main thing, but we still haven’t qualified. We will have to go and win away. Personally, nothing has changed since I announced that I was quitting at the end of the season. It’s my decision, no one pushed me out. I lived this day with a lot of emotion. I’m happy with my comeback, it always warms the heart to hear the ovation of the spectators. I spent eighteen in this club with them, they got to know me.
The following ? I spent over twenty years on the pitch training every day and playing every weekend. There, I will ask myself a little anyway. I did everything to prepare for the aftermath, but I don’t know yet if I would stay in rugby. I was happy to do the lap of honor at the end with my daughter.
I always say that we are only passing through a club or a company. You have to agree to give way to young people at some point. If I spent my entire professional career here, it’s because Toulouse is a special club. It’s a club that allows you to realize your dreams. When I left Blagnac, it was to win titles and I knew I could do it in Toulouse. I have already tried to imagine myself with another jersey on my back but I have trouble. »
“It’s a crazy Top 14, we lost four places in the standings in one day, it’s unheard of! Now all matches are cut. The slightest defeat takes us away from the top 6”
Grégory Alldritt (third line center of La Rochelle): “We lacked a bit of precision. We can’t give them 7 points on a camp outing (6th), just after our try (4th). We are good in the first period, but afterwards, we lack accuracy when we have the ball and we get closer to their in-goal. We are the ones who lose our match, but I found that there was a big lack of consistency on a lot of the referee’s decisions, especially in the defensive rucks where the Toulouse were lying on a lot of balls. We knew it would be a big game, in prime time, and we missed something.
Afterwards, we can rely on the state of mind affected this evening for the rest. We were able to score on a good play, we were not bad in the rucks, but there were too many small errors and inaccuracies. We must continue and use this game. There is no reduction, it is far from being a setback. It is perhaps better than a victory, even, because this frustration, we will be able to evacuate it next weekend against Montpellier in front of our public in the quarter-finals of the European Cup. It’s a crazy Top 14, we lose four places in the standings in one day, it’s unheard of! Now all matches are cut. The slightest defeat takes us away from the top 6.