Interview in Saint-Étienne
How do you analyze this game?
Fabien Galthié: It’s a preparation match with a different team. His last game was March 10 (at the Tournament). The work done is not done to be optimal today. The Scots are a month and a half ahead of us. Our championship didn’t end until June 17th. The objective is to continue to prepare for the next four weeks. On the content of the match, it showed us what we are capable of doing and not doing. We struggled with and without the ball. But we had highlights that allowed us to win. We were overtaken at times, but we managed to win. The public of Saint-Étienne helped us a lot. We had to do a lot of coaching.
Did you have any trouble rearranging your squad mid-game?
We had several options. We wanted to strengthen the midfield with Paul (Boudehent), we brought in Louis (Bielle-Biarrey) at the back, which gave playing time to Thomas (Ramos) at the opening.
Did you expect to see anything else offensively?
We look at what we can achieve. Despite three tries, we still have to progress offensively. We can explain it by our inability to play fair, but also by the fatigue of this team. The Scots were playing their third match, we are not at the same level. We have two opponents left (Fiji and Australia) which are very difficult to play.
There were no air pockets this time after returning from the locker room…
It changes, it varies. (Laughter) If we look for air pockets, we can find them. But the team regained control of the game by winning on its bases. But, afterwards, we thwarted it, we made bad choices, technical errors.
How will the next week of preparation go?
We adapt. We had a vision that we changed. Sunday and Monday will be big days of analysis to find out who will play against Fiji. That’s why 42 players is what it takes to prepare for this World Cup. (…) You have to be able to move forward no matter what. It’s a preparation game. The players will recover and we will get back to work. We are still in the development phase. We are going to be needy and we are going to take the images again. We will put a team composition quickly. So that the players can prepare. The composition will be announced to the players on Monday afternoon.
