Paris (AFP)

Stade Toulousain, opposed to Clermont on Sunday in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, is "a chameleon team capable of changing skin when the finals arrive", believes its former coach Guy Novès, also ex-coach of the XV of France (2016-2017), Tuesday in an interview with AFP.

Q: What did you think of Stade Toulouse's performance in Munster?

A: "It's a good performance with a very good second half. The first was not at Stade Toulouse level, but the second reflected what it is capable of doing. Was it a great Munster team? I don't know. What is certain is that Stade Toulouse can have great ambitions and why not win the European Cup. "

Q: Does Clermont have an advantage at home without spectators?

A: "I do not see the impact of traveling or receiving since we no longer have the support of the public. So there is a real balance between the confrontations. Clermont, it is a team which unfortunately has for her, lost five times in the final (Top 14) against Stade Toulouse and which therefore has difficulty approaching the big matches of the final phase. I see Toulouse winning even if it will not be easy because Clermont remains a great team. But Stade Toulouse has players capable of making huge differences in the final phase. "

Q: What makes the strength of the Toulouse Stadium at the collective level?

A: "The players arrive at the final stages with a tenfold desire. Stade Toulouse is a team that reaches its target not just when it plays a final but when it wins it. It is a chameleon team capable of change. skin when the final stages arrive. This is not quite the case for the others and in particular for Clermont. It is a brilliant team throughout the season, which remains so in the final phase but does not change its costume . In the final phase, you have to behave completely differently, which is the case with Stade Toulouse even though the club has had some slumps. We feel that the players want to do as well as their elders and have this education. have an example to follow and seek to surpass it. That makes them a team apart. "

Q: Which team do you think is the toughest for Toulouse?

A: "It's a rather special European Cup. The Saracens (demoted to the English 2nd division for not respecting the salary cap, editor's note) are not there. It was one of the teams capable of posing real problems to others. Leinster remain a complicated team but move to Exeter (defending champion). One of them will remain on the grid. I see Leinster (qualify). This is a team that has won four times the European Cup (record shared with Toulouse, note) and which is used to these meetings. She is able to change her costume too in the final phase. In France I don't see anyone. "

Q: The Dupont-Ntamack hinge is considered one of the best in the world.

What do you think ?

A: "It makes me happy! When I had the chance to coach the France team, I remember that with Jeff Dubois and Yannick Bru (his assistants), we put Romain Ntamack on the Elite list (in 2017, players then protected by an LNR-FFR agreement). At that time, he had not played a single match in the Top 14 and I was almost taken for a madman, while we were working thinking that 'he could be at the World Cup (2019), which was the case. He is a player that I have seen grow, work and progress constantly. Little Antoine Dupont also arrived at the very beginning in a team from France making great strides coming from Castres. This makes a young hinge who works and progresses together. Romain is capable of having the intelligence and the coldness necessary for this position. Antoine has incredible qualities, it is at when we least expect him he appears the most! His tests with the France team or the Stadium demonstrate it. I will refrain from saying that

hat is the best hinge in the world, but indeed it is one of the best today. "

Interview by Ludovic LUPPINO

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