Despite the disappointment, he had a slight smile on his lips.
In front of the media in the passageways of the Stade de France, Loïc Jacquet, the Castres second line wanted to be positive despite the large defeat in the final of his team against Montpellier (29-10) on Friday evening.
The former international (4 selections), who spent most of his career in Clermont, until 2016, has indeed decided to hang up his crampons, at 37 years old.
Does ending with a defeat in the final give you regrets?
LOIC JACQUET.
Of course I would have liked to end on a title but on the match, there is no picture.
When you see the score, the face of the meeting, there can be no regrets.
They were better than us.
I can understand that it will be a great sadness for all the young people and those who lived their first final.
Me, I stop my career there so I am extremely proud to have reached this far.
It's not given to everyone to finish at the Stade de France.
I want to leave on this positive note.
What happened in this match?
We didn't get into the game very well.
We made hand mistakes, there was a lot of indiscipline, missed tackles.
The first twenty minutes, it was not us.
And they scored.
We knew that it was a team that scored a lot when it entered the 22 meters.
Ben voilà, they killed the entrance game.
With a twenty point gap at halftime, it was tough.
That's a shame.
If we had been able to score earlier, we could have hoped to start a comeback.
Was there something missing in your preparation?
Finals are like that.
There is a huge psychological part.
The phones ring all week.
Maybe for some the pressure was too much.
Congratulations to the Montpellier residents who made a perfect final.
They gave us the change of our 2018 coin (Editor's note: victory of Castres 29-13).
We were ready, but we can have a perfect week, what matters is the pitch.
Did you still believe it at halftime?
Yes of course.
We came back, we camped at their house, we hurt them.
We didn't give up.
But the more time passed the easier it was for them to control the game.
In a final, you mustn't fall behind, that's how it is.
It's a collective bankruptcy but we have a great group.
We didn't get here by chance.
There was a lot of regularity.
We had a big semi-final against Toulouse (Editor's note: 24-18 victory).
I hope this will give a big appetite to young people.
These are good basics.
I who waited four finals to win one with Clermont, I know it makes you want to go back.
Is it hard to leave like this?
Honestly, no.
I have eighteen years of career, 314 Top 14 matches, I reached the final 7 times, I won two Brennus shields.
I am 37 years old, and sincerely I am proud of what I have done.
I hung on to the end even if I never made the crowds dream.
