The observation is once again realistic. Despite all their good intentions, the Sapiacains do not evolve in the same championship as others. Moreover, they faced Parisians who were not going to miss the opportunity at Sapiac.
Fred Quercy (3rd row, captain): “Before the kickoff, I told the players that we should not be fatalistic and that we should believe in it, giving everything because we had nothing to lose. It’s good to watch the matches, but it’s harder to endure them. I think the difference was in the physical aspect. They are taller, stronger, and move faster. We always lack that small second. It feels like you’re letting go when you’re actually just getting lost at some point. There is a gap and it is confirmed weekend after weekend. The end of matches is what’s long. Now, looking at the results, I see that we are the only ones taking points. Despite everything, it will be good memories for us. We play against the best players in the world. We were not prepared for this. To catch them, we have to play our final while they don’t. It is difficult to race without the right car. We will host La Rochelle in fifteen days hoping that we will play the match like a final. In life, you have to put things into perspective. I’m sure that if we had changed twenty guys, taking others for €20,000 a month, we would have done better. It’s good to have done this season with the team that won last season.”
Sébastien Tillous-Borde (manager): “We did good things with a very decent first half overall. We managed to score. However, after we scored, on the kickoff that followed, we conceded a try out of nowhere. It’s too difficult at this level to exist. In the second half, it was tough because we made a mistake and conceded another try. It should be noted that Paris is a very strong team with a player like Népéa who lit up the game with his talent. We struggled one-on-one. After that, it’s too complicated. This is the Top 14. We can only compete at certain moments. The goal was to play the best possible match. We would like to win a match at Sapiac for us and our supporters before the end of the season. We see the difficulty we have even when we give our all. We are building things for next season. When you are dominated, the arbitrage kills you on details. We must concentrate on ourselves and the work we do. We are a good Pro D2 team, but today we are not a Top 14 team. This experience should serve us for next season. We will need to remember this season to have the drive next year.”
Charles Laloi (Stade Français Paris winger): “The essential thing for us was to come here and leave with the offensive bonus points. We had to be serious without overdoing it. This allows us to stay close to the top group. I am very happy to have seen the quality of Noah Népéa’s match. He is now an international player.”
Ryan Chapuis (Stade Français Paris flanker): “We had a strong bench and we knew that the players who would come around the hour mark would bring a lot of energy. We came to respect Montauban. This meant that if we could score more than 60 points, we had to do it. We got the bonus. The start of the match was choppy. Later on, we were very pragmatic. It will be very tight. We will have to win the last two matches. A big battle awaits us. Noah Népéa shone in the game with his class. We made jokes with Thomas Bué, our future teammate. He’s strong. I was exhausted at the end and I didn’t see much of him. Glad to have him with us next season. We’ll see what he’s worth.”
Ian Vass (Stade Français Paris coach): “We did a good job. It was not always easy. We were serious and clean. We just won two games with five points. It will be hard to finish in second place. The goal is the Top 6 and then we’ll see what happens next.”
