Stade Toulousain will “fight (its) old demons” against Leinster, its manager Ugo Mola confessed on Tuesday before finding his eternal Irish rival in Dublin in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup on Saturday, who had beaten him dryly for the season. passed at the same stage of the competition (40-17).
Defeat is still on everyone’s mind. Ugo Mola knows it: “Until proven otherwise, I’m coaching a group that doesn’t have amnesia. They are all capable of knowing what we experienced, in a very particular context. Which in no way detracts from the lesson we had that day, as they (the Irish) were much more dashing and in place on their rugby than we could be at that time.
Asked about the lessons learned by his group from the elimination against the Irish, Mola put his finger on the new character of his people: “I think that on the state of mind, our ability to do things, the desire to play together, the group is not satisfied and still wants to exist at a high level. We will try to take this step, which would be somewhat in phase with our destiny. We have the impression that it is written, that we have to go and play at Leinster to perhaps fight our old demons.
Old demons to defeat therefore for a highly anticipated meeting. “I hope we will rise to the occasion. You don’t have to play the game before. It will take a big Toulouse stadium, with a little bit of magic at one time or another,” he claimed.