They’re talking loudly. And don’t even try to hide it. The Blues leave behind them, with a weary step, the lawn of the Civitas Metropolitano stadium. A few minutes earlier, they were dominated by Australia in the final match of their group. The defeat (28-14) on Saturday afternoon, with a quadruple from the Australian Maddison Levi, will not prevent them from playing in the semi-finals of the world circuit final on Sunday in Madrid. But they are again and again pushed to their limits against one of the two locomotives of the discipline among women.
After defeating Fiji on Friday (36-7) and facing the Irish on Saturday noon (36-5) with eleven tries scored in two matches, the Olympic vice-champions lost against the players from the southern hemisphere. “We give tests too easily,” complains their coach David Courteix. We give them four tries, there are two too many. It’s a sport where you don’t have many scoring opportunities, so when you have so many and you don’t convert them… It pisses me off, but it doesn’t destabilize me. »
Gathered as usual in a circle to debrief the match straight away, the French women promised among themselves to redress the situation on Sunday. With a semi-final against Canada, surprise winner of its group against the favorites New Zealand, crowned in the last four tournaments.
“We have to raise the slider even higher. Be us and play our rugby, underlines French captain Carla Neisen. The goal is tomorrow (Sunday). We will recover well and move on. »
“The worst thing in this sport is dwelling on it,” continues David Courteix. The priority is to think about tomorrow (Sunday) from now on. We will have to have a big match. A little bigger than this one. » To maintain the hope of finally winning a tournament on the circuit, an unprecedented performance for French women’s rugby sevens.
