Nicolas Depoortere (center of UBB, beaten by Section Paloise in Chaban-Delmas, 10-20) : “We didn’t respond, we came across a very good team from Pau. We will go back to work to make up for this new mistake at home (after the defeat against Stade Français). We had a very bad first period. We made up for it afterwards but in the end we lost the match. We have to move on.
We entered their camp plenty of times but we didn’t make it happen. There was a protruding or scratching. It’s a lack of seriousness on the part of the team, we will do everything to make up for it. We are in a professional world. This must not weaken us so much, we must react.
This evening, we didn’t know how to react. We’re going to study this, we’re going to try to find the answers. It hits us hard on the head. But we’re not going to cry. The Top 14 is still long, we have to react to move up the rankings. »
Maxime Lamothe (hooker and captain of UBB) : “I think there were some good things, but we lacked efficiency, where the Palois, when they came to our camp, scored. Everything is not to be thrown away but it is the second home match in a row that we have lost (after the setback against Stade Français on January 27) and we know that we will not always be able to react with a victory at home. the exterior. We will have to work harder and better, and win again at Chaban.
We used to start matches well for a few weeks now. That was the goal. From the start of the match, we got into trouble, we couldn’t get out of our camp, we were cornered. The Palois played rather well. They had a good match. We take two devastating counterattacks very early in the match. We entered their goal several times without scoring. We had plenty of opportunities to score without succeeding. Tonight, we were very ineffective, that’s what cost us the match.
We never like to lose at home. It hurts. It’s very disturbing. But the season is very long. We have the opportunity to pick up points everywhere in each match. I don’t think we looked down on the people of Palois. They made a big start. Today we played pretty good rugby. But we lacked the finish. There are matches like that, you have the impression that you can attack for two whole days without scoring and that’s what happened tonight. It’s up to us to work to find solutions and ensure that this doesn’t happen again. »
“There are a lot of contrary elements today. I regret our first period when nothing worked for us”
Yannick Bru, manager of UBB
Yannick Bru (UBB manager): “Our first period lacked electricity, punch in the collision zones, that’s what we mainly regret. We should have done better in the efficiency of our collisions in the first period. It was average. We made technical errors, we gave two tries to Pau, who didn’t need that, who were very well organized defensively. The Top 14 is demanding from the first minute. Our second period is more in line with the face we want to show, in terms of efficiency, in what we want to show in the contacts, the collisions. We found a UBB that was making a lot of progress.
We fell into the goal four times with tries not awarded, probably rightly so, and two forwards five meters from the line. There are many contrary elements today. I regret our first period when nothing worked for us. Several rebounds were unfavorable to us, several difficult decisions too. But Pau had a well-oiled plan around its defense, which worked very well. They were brave. The 17 point difference confirmed them in this system. It became complicated in the second half because we had to hold the ball. They were 14 in defense. And we didn’t manage to finish in the goal as much as we wanted. »