Fabien Galthié is necessarily satisfied with the beautiful victory of the Blues on the ground of Scotland, Saturday February 26 for the 3rd day of the Six Nations Tournament (17-36). But rather than projecting himself into a possible Grand Slam (there are two matches left, in Wales on March 11 and against England at the Stade de France on March 19), the coach preferred to retain the key moments when the match would have been able to escape the Blues.
How do you analyze this victory?
FABIEN GALTHIE. There were key moments in this game. Like at the end of the first half, where we failed to take this try with Hogg’s forward, and then behind we managed to score on Gaël Fickou’s try. Then also at the start of the second half, where, again, we notice immediately on a counter. These are the turning points of the game. Because at half-time, we weren’t very happy with our performance.
What did you say to yourself at halftime?
We said to ourselves that we were going to put the focus back on simple things, put more intensity in collisions, the ground game, etc. We reacted well. We were able to hit hard by scoring when necessary at the end and beginning of the half.
What made the difference?
Our defense, our ground game. This consistency in our game helped us turn the game around and get through those tough times. At one point the Scots gave up, it was a showdown, we don’t know what would have happened with other hazards. But we were ready for this kind of situation. When you win, you are ready.
We saw an exciting team, with some very good tries… Were you prepared to offer this game?
It’s rugby. It’s a game of transition and acceleration, a permanent job. We focus our training on this: how to exploit our many qualities, feeling, intuition, knowing how to quickly transform from defender to attacker, with the constraints of international rugby. We work a lot on that, today we are very efficient. We played those shots very well, with a lot of quality ball in hand, good choices, relevant support.
Is it an important victory in the evolution of the group?
Every win counts. In international rugby, you only exist if you win, even by one point. Each victory that is there, it allows us to learn, to build ourselves. The defeats, too, have taught us a lot. What we experienced here two years ago (loss 28-17), it worked for us.
