the XV of Franceoutclassed Scotland (36-17) for the first time in the Six Nations Tournament since the arrival of Fabien Galthié: “we had to be ready, we were,” welcomed the coach of the Blues at a press conference.
How do you feel after this great victory?
The positive is already winning here. This was the priority objective. If you qualify it as beautiful, we are satisfied, but not everything was perfect, we have points for improvement. Now we’re going to move on to recovery, it’s a moment of calm. We have a program to live, everything in its time.
Is this victory a sign that this team has grown?
In international rugby, you have to win matches: you only exist through victory. You have to win the matches, even by one point. Every win counts. Each victory is a stone that we put on the wall that we have been trying to build since the beginning of this mandate. Our defeats also teach us a lot: we learned a lot from our defeat here two years ago, it helped us a lot.
It looks like your defense has sickened Scotland…
“There are key moments in this game, especially the restart, just before half-time, we are in trouble and Stuart Hogg makes a forward. Then, in stoppage time, we score a magnificent try: we go to +9, we were at +2. On the return, at the start of the second period, we notice. The defence, the ground game, the quality of our game… All of that helped get us through this difficult time. Then, the Scots gave up but it was a showdown. We don’t know what would have happened with other hazards, we can’t anticipate. We had to be ready, we were.”
In the other meeting of the day, England dominated Wales, defending the title to the penalty. After having tripped over the carpet against Scotland and then rolled out in Italy, the XV de la Rose is back in the race for the title, carried by its new nugget Marcus Smith, 18 points on its own. Serene at the break (12-0), Eddie Jones’ men complicated the task, suffering and conceding two tries from Adams (53rd) and Biggar (61st). But it was Smith who had the last word. The third day of the 2022 Six Nations Tournament ends on Sunday with the meeting between Ireland and Italy in Dublin.