Challenge Cup – Jeremy Davidson (Castres): “I asked the referee for clarification”

It’s been a tough week in Castries, we imagine these five issues do a lot of good…

I think the first half was difficult because we were facing a team that refused to make an impact in the scrum. This is the first time this has happened to us and we did not expect this from the Georgian team. We were penalized five times with yellow cards in the first half, it broke our rhythm. We wanted to add volume, to move around. Well, our touch was efficient, we created some great moves but we didn’t score enough. When we return to the pitch after half time, we are outnumbered and the score is only 7 to 3 with the opposing team playing a historic match, its first match in France and very aggressive and motivated.

But CO took the upper hand in the second period. How do you explain it?

The team was able to find a link. The first line that came into play in the second period was able to find solutions to counter the Georgians. We managed to get an attacking bonus point in the last moments of the match, so that’s a positive. Well, we would have liked to score more points to have a stronger point average, but we came up against a team that put up a good fight and that prevented us from doing so. So we are satisfied with these five points. You should always respect your opponent. We played against a team that has 70% of its national team. This is not trivial. I think they eventually got tired as our scrum became more efficient in the second half. Our boys were able to capitalize on opportunities after the break, but I would have liked us to have been more precise to get more points…

Young Castres and Bench were able to show themselves…

Yes, our young players were able to take advantage of this match to play full time and get a great victory which gives confidence. Being able to rely on them for the future is important. We knew Black Lion would be there for 80 minutes. We wanted to finish strong. He succeeded. We are still alive before the last day of this competition. There are three very close teams (Clermont, Castries and Gloucester) who will be competing for qualification. It is interesting.

Now heading to Gloucester…

Yes, they are a team that will give us a big challenge with a lot of speed and rhythm on their artificial pitch. We should rotate a little so that all our players can play at least one match during this period.

We saw you talking to the referee at half time… what did you say to him?

Yes, I never do but since he speaks English I took advantage of it. I wanted to push him a bit before the second half (laughs). I asked him for an explanation because I did not understand why we should be penalized so much when the Georgians did not advance once.