Edinburgh (AFP)
After the defeat in Scotland (27-18), the French players, in solidarity, supported their teammate Mohamed Haouas, pillar excluded after a punch, evoking "a collective fault".
"The images, you saw them like everyone else, it was a moment when there was tension", explains the three-quarter center Arthur Vincent, who continues: "It's a collective fault, we don't didn't know how to be cold at the time and "Momo" is paying for it. These are things we have to erase and we're going to use it to build. "
In the 37th minute, after a collision near the French line, the right pillar of the four selections, Vincent's teammate in Montpellier, came out of his hinges by hitting Jamie Ritchie in the face, leaving 14 his teammates.
"It was a kind of general fight and maybe, with a little experience, we will learn to stop things before. We did not want to fight it, we were trapped. But we are young, we is under reconstruction, "said coach Fabien Galthié.
Gaël Fickou, wing holder at Murrayfield, admitted that it was "a gesture that 'Momo' shouldn't do, that's for sure".
"It's much harder to play at 14 than at 15, we're not going to lie to each other," continued Fickou, the most experienced player of the current XV of France, adding directly: "but it's not the only one reason we lost this match. "
Like Fickou, the third center line Grégory Alldritt does not blame Haouas: "We are a group and today, if we lose, it's not because of Momo Haouas, it's the whole team" , who was already in trouble before the red, François Cros having notably taken a yellow card from the 5th minute.
And Alldritt concludes: "It would be really not honest, we can all blame each other for mistakes so we will certainly not put the defeat on the back of Momo".
© 2020 AFP