In Lyon
What state of mind were you in hearing that Dupont was absent? Maxime Lucu: It’s certain that I had a lot of pressure on me. With Antoine’s injury, I was expected. I also knew it was a knockout match. So, when we don’t have our captain, we have a little apprehension, that’s normal. But we have worked hard for ten days, we have been part of the collective for 3-4 years, we have already played matches without Antoine. We just had to be confident in ourselves. Afterwards, when you play with a pack of forwards who advance like that, who do incredible work, it’s easier when you play at the hinge.
Did you enjoy yourself? The watchword I had was to have fun. I was happy to play a World Cup match with the number 9 on my back. I was happy to have gotten there, to be on the pitch. I wanted to let go and have fun. It was a perfect evening, with people at the stadium, fun for the players. It was also the key word, the leitmotif, because we have a lot of pressure. This ghost of defeat was a little upon us.
And you also delighted your UBB teammate, Matthieu Jalibert. It wasn’t empty words when I said, during the week, that I knew him by heart. I knew his state of mind, that he was in good spirits. I know very well how to play with Matthieu. The strategy put in place was not trivial. Matthieu has enormous qualities when attacking the line. When we have fast rucks like that, as we wanted to do, all we had to do was serve him and play around him. Matthieu knows how to do everything. So I served him as best I could. Sometimes, it’s true, I also have to take a little more personal initiative. But when you advance so much in front, you just have to give him the ball and, with his liveliness, he will do the rest.
You made the match easy thanks to a perfect start. You had to be serious. The times when we weren’t enough, the Italians pissed us off. So we did it very well by taking the score quickly. We hit them, especially their front 8. That’s what made the match easier. We marked them on the rucks. We hammered them in front. We hurt them and, behind, with the gazelles we have, we were able to play. It’s a contract fulfilled. We won, and in style. So we are happy.
Does this match ideally prepare for the quarter-final, which will be much tougher? It will not be the same match, it will be much more difficult. But it’s easier to prepare after a match like that than to win by a point by scaring yourself. We continue on the path. There are things to keep. We had to have a serious match to put our game in place. We did it. We were clean for 80 minutes in attack, the defense was coherent. Now, the upcoming deadlines will be more complicated against opponents from the Top 4 in the world. We will certainly have to be a little more aggressive in defense, put more pressure in the rucks, go up faster. But we still had to do it against Italy and we did it very well. We have three World Cup finals to play. Now we have to go. All the lights are green and the best is coming…
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