“We are not in place”: Baptiste Serin analyzes the heavy defeat of the RCT against Toulouse
The match was one-sided. Is it a deception?
Yes, the car came to test itself as a group. We knew it was going to be complicated, but it took us a while to get into the game. That’s a shame. Faced with a team like Toulouse, it does not forgive. On a run after the score all game, it was impossible to win.
You still held out in Toulouse for a quarter of an hour…
Glad we lasted a bit, because otherwise we would have taken sixty! It was good during the first quarter of an hour, but then we take two very simple tries on defensive errors. When they have small spaces, they rush into them and we run behind them.
How do you explain these defensive errors?
We are not quite in place yet. It is also due to the quality of the opponent who has formidable players. We got into a bit of trouble with our kicking games, especially on the forwards where they managed to find some progress. At one point, we say to ourselves that we have to go directly into touch but we can’t find it and we take a test (the second registered by Delibes after the relaunch of Dupont). These are small details on which we had to apply.
Did you have an anti Dupont plan that did what he wanted?
We all know Antoine. When he has a little space, he feasts. We defended badly and against a player like “Toto”, we paid him cash. Afterwards, we targeted the ruck phases where Toulouse are formidable. We tried to put our hands up but we were never rewarded, rightly so. The problem is, when you put two guys in the ruck, they miss the line. Toulouse took advantage of this by dismissing two or three balls which allowed them to pick up speed.
When you returned from the locker room, we saw you take the axis. Was it an instruction?
Yes, especially since during the friendly match (loss 21-31) we had managed to take them in this area because Toulouse defended very well laterally. it worked pretty well, but we didn’t manage to score on the five-yard scrums.
Isn’t it grumbling all this slag in the offensive phase?
Yes, just like what we have planned for the week and which we do not realize in a match, like finding the keys. These are early season details to be rectified. We are all responsible. Individually, you have to go up a notch.
You played the first game in ten, executed at Toulouse at the scrum and finished at the opener. Do you meet there?
I try… (laugh). It’s complicated… We only have a ten, I knew that since last year. I agreed to play this position for the group. I like it and I try to do the best I can.
But isn’t it too disturbing to change position during the match?
I do… (he smiles).
While waiting for balances, we will have to turn our backs
In Toulouse, the RCT brought to light what we had seen and anticipated during the friendly matches and during the first period against Bayonne. The team is not yet in place. It lacks collective benchmarks and, like last year at the same time, is suffering in certain sectors and lines.
Dominated from start to finish, the Toulonnais have never been able to worry Toulouse who have developed their rugby and imposed the tempo of the match.
Missing profiles
What does Clément Poitrenaud, the assistant coach of the five-time European champions, think? “It’s the start of the season, Toulon have many important players who are not yet on the pitch. I am thinking of Paia’aua, Waisea, Villière, Kolbe… The team will have another face in some time. “
The whole problem comes from this “some time”. Last year, a carnage had sealed the start of the season. In these first two games, there is less to worry about, because we do not feel the players disoriented, but the team evolves a tone below many others in terms of defensive base and intentions offensives. She suffers for the moment from a certain imbalance in these lines.
Behind, the absence of regulator Duncan Paia’aua is clearly detrimental. Jérémy Sinzelle can play this role, but he has just returned to the club and he needs a powerful player by his side (Waisea) to express all his versatility.
If there is no doubt that quick answers will be found, the case of the “ten” is more delicate. The pout of convenience store Baptiste Serin on the subject, Sunday evening in Toulouse, speaks volumes.
The only specialist in the position, Ihaia West, will logically need time to adapt when the other Top 14 teams have started with doublets already installed or very complementary.
The best example comes from Montpellier where Louis Carbonel is already running at full speed with Paolo Garbisi shifted to the center. Wealth issues…
As for the third line, it also displays a certain imbalance. Deprived of Facundo Isa in selection, he lacks the piano mover who met the whole collective in the advance. “Basta” are you there?
We have therefore understood it: we will have to turn our backs hoping that it will pass on Sunday against Clermont and while waiting to see the ranks expand.