Ugo Mola after Toulouse’s elimination against Leinster: “We learned a real lesson”
Ugo Mola, manager of Toulouse, beaten in the semi-finals by Leinster (40-17) : “There is necessarily disappointment when you lose in the semi-finals. It’s hard not to go all the way to Marseille. Afterwards, quite logically, the best team plays one more match. Today, too much separated us from Leinster. We failed to stem the blue waves. We came across a much better team than ours. Leinster have existed at the highest level for fifteen or twenty years.
The only time we beat them in the finals was at home. And we know that to beat this kind of team, you have to do well in all sectors. Today, we were far from this configuration. Well done to Leinster, then. There will be a great team in the final. On the freshness, the speed, the changes of rhythm, they were superior to us. We rushed, avoiding scoring quickly to get back into the game. We lacked patience and the ability to slow down this team which had set a higher speed than ours.
“We’re going to have to get our heads back”
We know that we didn’t make it very easy to play on that side of the table. Nevertheless, today (same), the best won. I’m even more in awe of Leinster’s game after what I’ve seen. He plays a passionate rugby, perhaps very codified, but which has the merit of being of rare efficiency.
Now we will refocus. We have two games left in a Top 14 where we are not qualified, far from it. We will have to put our heads back to where we took a real rugby lesson. We have a season to finish, with a national title to defend. There are also many lessons to be learned. It will be necessary to analyze the good things to come out better in some time. »