He appeared after the match in the spans of the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, with his two scrum backs Maxime Machenaud and Teddy Iribaren, downcast but not angry.
Laurent Travers, the manager of Racing 92, recognized the superiority of La Rochelle in this semi-final (19-6).
And aims to come back stronger next year.
What feeling predominates after this elimination?
LAURENT TRAVERS.
When you lose a semi-final, it's a failure.
This is not the ambition of the players, the staff, the partners and the whole club.
Racing 92 wants to be champion.
We are disappointed but we came across better than us.
How do you explain the domination of La Rochelle?
At the start of the match, we played 5-6 fairly good minutes but we did not materialize.
We return the ball too easily.
We hit high balloons, but we do not recover anything behind.
We were also failing in the fray.
We put all the gas we had, but there was a little less in the engine.
It is also linked to the quality of La Rochelle, their ability to strike where it hurts.
They deserve their victory.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Thank you, dear supporters, for staying with us all this special season.
We would have liked to go further for you, and finally in front of you after so much time away from the stadiums.
See you next year 💙💙💙💙 #RacingFamily pic.twitter.com/bVlAkSX5C6
- Racing 92 (@ racing92) June 18, 2021
The kicking game was faulty ...
We had worked on the ability to get out of our camp by kicking, with a winger at the far post.
We had noticed that we could endanger them like that.
But the realization was not perfect, with a direct kick in touch.
But if the achievement is positive, the result may be favorable on this action.
The game requires mistakes.
If we were approximate, it's either because we are less precise and focused, or also because the opponent has put pressure on us.
Do you regret that the roof of the stadium remained open even though it was raining (downpour at the hour of play)?
It is not worth arguing about it.
Apologies are for others.
It's just a shame compared to the game, when we just chose a field with a roof that can be closed.
But it's a decision that I do not control, I prefer to content myself with managing my staff and my players.
Did the performance of your three-quarter line disappoint you?
The tempo comes first from the pack of forwards.
Last week
(38-21 victory against Stade Français in the play-off, Editor's note)
, we played by moving forward.
This allows three-quarters to do a good job.
There, we have to look things in the face, it is the bunch of forwards from La Rochelle who dominated.
We were caught in the rucks, in touch, in closed scrum.
Is it in the pack that things will have to be changed for next season?
We must not throw everything away. Rugby is the school of life, everything is questioned every weekend. Last week we were already seen champions, today everything would be thrown away. We are dealing with very proud players. If we missed it, it's also my responsibility. The ambition is to win titles. This season is insufficient. We will not be satisfied with that. But we must not forget that there is only one champion. Every year, that's a lot of disappointments.
