Question: In what state of mind is the band?
Answer: "It's a mix of emotions, like before any important meeting: there is excitement, a little apprehension, stress but above all a lot of motivation. Everyone is looking forward to it. We only had one full day of training this week and we felt a lot of enthusiasm from the group who are really looking forward to tomorrow (Saturday, editor's note). in any case, we will have to raise our level of play individually and collectively."
Q: Do you think the match against Ireland is on the same level as the match against the All Blacks (40-25 victory) last November?
A: "I think so: when you see that Ireland are ranked third in the world and they also beat New Zealand, you know they are one of the best nations in the world. When you plays against this kind of teams, you have to prepare with the same standards each time, so in terms of the context, we can compare (the two meetings, editor's note). The only difference is that tomorrow's match ( Saturday, editor's note) will count for a competition while that of November was only a test match.
Q: How are you approaching this meeting from a strategic point of view?
A: "The Irish have played (against the All Blacks and the Welsh) matches full of mastery, faithful to themselves and what they have been doing for several years, with a very clean conquest, a very disciplined game, with the first penalty (against them) which only happened in the 53rd minute against Wales... Which is quite remarkable and quite significant of the way they operate and play. Now I don't think that "we have complexes to have compared to them. We are able to compete, we have already done so in previous meetings, in particular by putting a lot of intensity, trying to counter them in the phases of the game where they excel . And that's what we'll try to do tomorrow."
Comments collected at a press conference.
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