They went for it, this second victory of the season. The players of Aviron Bayonnais were scared, but they resisted the return of UBB to win (20-15) this Saturday, September 24 on their Dauger lawn, on the occasion of the 4th day of Top 14 The reactions of Maxime Machenaud, the sky and white scrum half, the pillar Pascal Cotet and the manager Grégory Patat.
Maxime Machenaud: “In this championship, you have to take points quickly. It’s very difficult. The UBB is a big one, but there are thirteen others. All points count. We left a few, I think, last week in Paris, at least one, so it’s important to have this victory. It was not easy against a big double semi-finalist team. We can be satisfied with the result. On our two away defeats, we cracked at the end of the matches. It was really important to get it right. And tonight, we don’t end very well either, but we didn’t give in. We were very united and that’s what you have to remember. But I think we could have spared ourselves such a difficult end to the match.
I was really impatient to tread the lawn of Jean Dauger.
I was expecting that. I was very, very frustrated, a little angry about this injury. But again, I took my troubles patiently. Every top athlete experiences injuries. It happened at the wrong time and when you arrive in a club, you want to be put in the heart of the matter. I waited a little while and now I hope to be able to bring more to the group throughout the season. First with this jersey, it made me feel something exciting, it was what I expected. I was really looking forward to hitting the pitch and discovering this club which for me is a challenge that I am happy to take up.”
Pascal Cotet: “The last scrum? A somewhat special moment for a pillar. I didn’t think I was going back at all. I was yelling like a polecat on the side to encourage my partners. And then I see Greg (Patat, editor’s note) who tells me ‘Pascal Pascal, Pascal’, I turn around and wonder ‘what’s going on?’ He says to me “you go back, you go back.” Trust me, okay. And that takes the pressure off a bit. But we managed to manage it. We are quite happy. I think we all had a bit of a heart to catch up on the accident we had against Stade Français. I tell myself that we could not lose this match on a scrum. With the public, the team and all that, there was a little boost of energy, a lot of motivation, it went pretty well.
Return to the last scrum? It’s a bit of a pressure…
In the team lined up, there are many recruits who come from Pro D2. We are keen to prove, to perform. I think we want to go further, to maintain ourselves. It keeps us motivated all the time.”
Gregory Patat: “Compared to the density that Bordeaux wanted to put on its team composition, we knew that it was going to happen in front, with the playing conditions that there were. We said that we had to be clean on our exits from the camp and on the scoring areas. The players decided to go into touch rather than take the points. It was a first shift that gave confidence to the whole group. Our scrum was rather efficient, but in the last minutes, it could have harmed us. The throw-in also alternated between very good and very average (with four lost balls). I think we were relatively well in place throughout the game. made silly mistakes in the middle of the second half, in their camp, which allowed them to come back home too easily. A lack of control. A bad footwork, a bad recovery and we find ourselves at the end of a scenario with a scenario that could have escaped us.
The last scrum? Already collectively, we suffer too much impact, we can’t get in and get in place. I think the refereeing corps has Pieter in its sights (Scholtz). So here it is, I make the decision to replace it with Pascal. Here, now we will tell me what coaching. But it’s the players who do it. Pascal was able to respond present at that time and it is he who must be congratulated.
These guys want to prove!
I didn’t see them like that. These guys, like Pascal Cotet, Thomas Ceyte, Pierre Huguet, Manuel Leindekar (which come from Pro D2, editor’s note) have the slab. Pascal Cotet played in front of 1,000 people in Narbonne – without disrespecting this club, which has been a stronghold of French rugby. When you come into an atmosphere like that… These guys want to prove themselves. I held out my hand to Pascal, he wants to give it back to me. I thought they were going to go into a squad rotation a little later. They simply seize the chance that comes their way and afterwards they are carried away by this atmosphere. It’s crazy, incredible about this game.”
We only have one pressure, it is that the players do not respond present, in the state of mind or the intensity of the fight, it is the only pressure that we put on ourselves. The only duty that I give to the players is to wet the shirt to be in adequacy with the environment. After the result, he is favorable in his first two home matches, but I would also have liked him to be a little more favorable at Stade Français.”