After three consecutive defeats and despite missing 16 players, including 15 injured, Stade Rochelais recorded their second away victory by winning 31-26 on Castres Olympique’s turf. This brought a smile back to manager Ronan O’Gara’s face.
“Ronan, your team is clearly capable of anything… Yes, capable of anything. Tonight, yes. This is a good lesson to stay united, stay together. The only way to achieve something is to play like that. To be competitive, we need to repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat that. I am very proud tonight. For the players because they truly showed a lot of cohesion, discipline, desire, will, and class in key moments.”
“After the defeat against Lyon, you said you were losers at the moment. Is it different tonight? Yes, but my demand comes from my esteem of this club. And I never thought we were a mediocre team. Do I have the right to give my opinion about my team? Yes. Were the players and I frustrated by the performances? Yes. But there is always optimism and the ability to see why I gave my heart to this team. Because I am not in denial. If I believe the message is not getting across, I leave immediately. I am with the players, the players are with me. I am proud of them tonight. It was an important match. I said during the week, I don’t care if we win or lose. But I just want to see what a Rochelais player is like.”
“Everything had started badly with Pierre Bourgarit’s injury right from the warm-up… Yes, I saw it from above. I watched the game in the stands with the caterer (Ronan O’Gara was suspended). I saw the starter, the main course, and the dessert… And I saw Pierre’s injury. His ankle is as big as a ball. Unfortunately, the bad news continues for Pierre. But this is where we see the strength of a group, because the others were very good.”
“There are eight matches left and you are eight points away from the Top 6… Is everything still possible? Yes, but for me, I was looking at where Perpignan was at. Because with this team, we can win a lot of matches, but we can also lose every match. We won one match. Now, there will be many people explaining where we are. External opinions are not interesting. Eight matches is a lot. But at the same time, it’s not a lot. But again, it depends on how you see things in the world. For me, it’s an opportunity. That’s positive tonight.”
Proposed by Romain Amalric.
