Paris (AFP)

The two heavy defeats conceded to Toulouse then Toulon were not experienced as "a psychological shock" for the French Stadium;

he wants to revive Sunday against Castres without making the final phase his main objective, coach Gonzalo Quesada explained Thursday.

Q: Did this match against Castres become crucial after these two consecutive defeats?

A: "I won't use the word crucial but it is an important match in our objective to find a little continuity in our performances. We had a very good series of matches before the cut of the championship for European competitions. Then there were the canceled matches of the European Challenge and we had to give the players vacations. This made us lose a little continuity even though we had a good match at Pau (29-27 loss) then against Brive ( success 51-21). But there, we fell against two beautiful teams of the championship. We did not know how to be consistent during 80 minutes. The most important for us, it is to find the dynamics which we had before these two trips. "

Q: Was it psychologically tough for the players?

A: "Defeats always hurt, especially defeats like that ... What is hard is to feel that we have made the task too easy for these two great teams. We feel that we do not. is not yet at the level of Toulon and Toulouse. We have never lied to each other. We never believed that we had already reached this level. So that is why there is no psychological shock. we had good streaks, we know that this season, qualifying (for the final phase), it remains in our heads, but our main objectives are to continue to have this work culture, to have more and more confidence in our attack. We must also get back to our bases. We had a good conquest, a good defense. And we were more irregular in our defense, in our touches. Castres will offer us a huge fight. We will have to be ready. "

Q: Is this duel very different from the one won in Castres, at the start of the season without any preparation match played?

A: "It was very special, with lots of match facts. We took a red card (66th minute). We won it and we could have lost it 20 times. We were very realistic in this match. The two teams were very different. We were so afraid of going thousands of kilometers away from the game ... We had zero benchmarks, the players hadn't played for six or seven months. It was a game like that, a little out of context. We can see a huge evolution since then, on the Castres side. They have an admirable state of mind. "

Interview during a press briefing.

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