Patrice Collazo, manager of Montpellier, after Montpellier’s defeat at home against Stade Français (10-12): “When we play the leader and the best team of the season away and we have nothing… We die at two points, but the gap is colossal in this match. Without the ball in touch (4 lost), without the ball in the scrum (six penalties conceded), rucks that aren’t very clean, no matter how much we put in the energy of despair, it’s obviously not enough. Without the ball against a hyper-tight and cold team, it’s complicated. We are stuck on the basics, and we sometimes try to take initiatives which turn against us, notably this pass after contact on the last possession when we can still scratch a penalty and win by a point.
There are two points difference on the scoreboard, but there is still a big gap between the two teams. On the sidelines, we never found the solution. With the scrum, we are caught on two strong points of our last weeks. You cannot play against the first without conquest. We played constantly at home… Given the match, I take this defensive bonus. Over the fortnight (with the match lost in Toulon 54-7), we only took one point after good momentum at the start of the year, we did not tick the boxes. We have a bad headache this evening (Saturday evening). »
Paul Willemse, Montpellier second row: “It’s weird. We weren’t really into it. It’s a bit of a game. Against a team like that, which wins all its matches, you have to at least be as consistent. They were. We are capable of doing so, particularly in touch and scrum. But over the past two weeks, we have lost a little of our momentum from the last three months. It’s hard. We’ll see what happens. When you’re like that, in tough times, you have to find the things that work and focus on that. You can’t fix everything right away, but we have to find confidence, find our strengths and regain our “momentum” (momentum). The European Cup matches were somewhat at the origin of our renewed confidence last December. We can do the same thing (MHR will face Ulster next weekend in the round of 16). It’s hard, but you have to stay in it, don’t give up. »
2024-03-30 18:45:35
#Patrice #Collazo #Montpellier #defeat #Stade #Français #dying #points #gap #colossal
