Antoine Dupont (Toulouse) after the victory against La Rochelle: “We took up the physical challenge”
Antoine Dupont (captain of Stade Toulousain, winner of La Rochelle (26-17)): “The result is more than satisfactory since we leave zero points to La Rochelle. But it was quite a frustrating match, it was a big fight. We struggled to put our game in place despite the chances we had. We managed to put them at fault and mark weaknesses. But we had trouble finding continuity in our game.
Strategically, the Rochelais played very well, they prevented us from playing. I think it was their will by putting a lot of fight in the ruck areas where they slowed the balls down. We couldn’t exploit our numerical superiority as much as we would have liked.
We were very dense in all areas of the game. We had a very good defense, very strong on the man against Rochelais whose physical power we know. We didn’t get out, we were able to resist and send them home. On one taken up the physical challenge. We were able to play in their camp and take points thanks to the success at the foot of Thomas (Ramos). »
“We are going to receive the Toulousains at the beginning of January and try to break the series”
Grégory Alldritt (captain of La Rochelle): “There is frustration. We want to compete with the best teams. We don’t move to lose. We lacked rigor and we had some hard knocks, but we can’t take that as an excuse. We must be able to react, to remain calm, to focus on our system and our objectives. We wanted to go faster than the music. Unfortunately, we leave here with no points.
Reda’s card (Wardi, from the 12th minute) is an important fact of the game, but we looked at each other and we said to ourselves that we did not care, that it did not scare us. But on a committed too many faults, me the first. Knowing the goalscoring qualities of Thomas Ramos, by committing so many faults in our camp, it often makes three points.
You can’t take away from us that there was a lot of intensity. Everyone gave their all. But we didn’t know how to channel ourselves, which explains all these faults. We entered the Toulouse 22 meters several times without scoring. But I want to congratulate the team on the level of adaptation. Everyone was responsive.
Toulouse is successful against us. Now the series are made to end. It’s up to us to work and be more precise with them. We will receive them at the beginning of January and try to break the series. We do not prepare Toulouse by telling ourselves that it is our pet peeve, but by telling ourselves that it is the best team in the Championship. »