He had never been so close to the Grand Slam since his debut with the Blues in 2013. Like all his partners of the France team, the player of the Stade Français struggled to hide his disappointment after the defeat in Scotland Sunday ( 28-17). Despite the disappointment, the tricolor winger calls on his teammates not to disunite before facing Ireland for the final match of the Six Nations Tournament.
What do you get out of this defeat against Scotland?
GAEL FICKOU. We didn't put the ingredients to beat them. Afterwards, they were good and realistic. They did nothing extraordinary, but they played on our mistakes. That's what's frustrating: when the team wins and has a great game, there is nothing to say. There, it is we who have not been good.
How to explain it?
It is simply an accumulation of errors. It was not our day, we were not aggressive enough, they were much more aggressive than us. Everything is linked, we give a lot of penalties, points to the foot, there is a red card that hurts us, full of small cumulative errors, forwards, scraped balloons… We were not at the level and it’s well deserved.
You weren't helped by the spell with the injuries…
Honestly, there was nothing for us. No defensive bonus points, not necessarily fun on the ground and many injured. It's a dark day for us. But it will teach us. We will raise our heads, we still have the title to play, we will fight. It is a questioning, and I hope that we will move forward.
What lessons should be learned from this setback?
We knew we were going to lose sooner or later, and we mustn't question everything. It is not a stop, it is a failure. We must build and progress further. Do not believe that everything will be pink all the time. We knew that sooner or later it was going to happen.
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What do you expect from the end of the Tournament against Ireland on Saturday?
This last game is going to be very hard. We missed out on this match a bit this afternoon, I hope we will be up to the challenge against the Irish.