Dragons – MHR: “We told the youngsters to let go”, Joan Caudullo, Montpellier manager looks back on the victory in Wales

For the MHR manager, the success against the Newport Dragons (14-18) during the first day of the Challenge shows all the character of his team this season.

Is this victory in line with the Bordeaux match? ?

Yes. We put a lot of pressure on the first minutes and at 18-0, thinking that it had come easily, we stopped and let them play. That's what's a bit annoying about this first half. It's been recurring with us since the start of the season. We have them in our hands, a bit like what happened against Pau and we have to kill them. We have to finish, even if it happens in the 35th minute. We talked a lot about the first 20 minutes. I thought we responded to that and then we were sufficient.

How do you analyze it ?

In the communication that was there all week, we made sure to say that we were not rotating the squad, that it was the squad to represent the Montpellier club, the DNA… We worked a lot on that. So maybe they, in the somewhat external communications and in what they saw on a daily basis. Because it's true that there were still a lot of players who, for some, were making their first match sheets, who didn't have much playing time. So they were perhaps afraid of that team. And when the twentieth came at 18-0, they said to themselves that finally we're there. We kept telling them that all week long. But hey, to score 18 points, that means that we put things in place, that is to say that we did what we did against Bordeaux. So I can't blame them for the last 20 minutes and not congratulate them on the first 20.

The Challenge Standings

There were a lot of young players in that group. Did they live up to your expectations?

Yes. We asked them to let go, not to calculate that we would see after their performances and that there would most certainly be mistakes. Some made some others didn't. But I found them interesting. For his return, Jules Verrier who was our last substitute, played the last ten minutes and he put in positive blocks when we were in a defensive position and we shouldn't have conceded a try. He is our best hopeful player today, he shows it in every match in his category. It was a reward for him and I think he proved us right to put him on the field.

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It is important to continue this emulation

You are a trainer, does this performance please you all the more?

Yes, it's definitely interesting. We often tell them, when you're playing in the first team, let loose. And often, these youngsters have good matches, which is what happened on Friday. In the past, we rotated players completely to rest guys. Now, we didn't rest anyone. Everyone trained all week, everyone made the squad work because it's important to continue to create this emulation to scratch our heads when we make team lineups.

Will this victory, in these hellish conditions, forge the character of this team a little more??

That's what I told them at the end of the match. We continue to win these arm wrestles at the end of the match. The offensive bonus against Pau, the victory at the end against Vannes, these are things that we didn't have last year, and at the start of the season either.

There has been consistency in this team for a few matches. We feel that you are still on the same dynamic.

Since the beginning of the season, we have been working the same way. All the players are implementing the project on the field. Whether it is the guys who play on the weekend or the others. We do a lot of clarity training so that all the players have the same system and they have the same communication. What we really want is to dominate the opponent physically, to put them in trouble, to be annoying. We also try to convey this to the youth teams. When the youngsters arrive, they know that they have this DNA in them and they bring it to our professional team. That is the goal, even if sometimes it does not work. In any case, in the last few matches, we have felt our DNA and we are a tough team to play against. We will need more to string together victories. We may have to play a little more rugby, we may have to move the ball a little more. But in any case, if we manage to keep this base in each match, we will not be far from victory in each match.

Move up the rankings

You feel like you're going to have headaches to compose your future teams ?

Exactly, even if we had planned things for the Challenge, everyone wants to play it. Everyone wants to play the match against the Ospreys (next Saturday). And everyone shows us that they are capable of playing, of taking the starting jersey. It's sure that the lineups are going to be difficult, but that's all we were waiting for. It was easier to do at the beginning of the season…

That's a pretty good sign for a coach.

Yes, that's a pretty good sign. Now it's up to us to be good and manage our squad well. We have seven matches left in this block. We have to manage these last matches well to qualify for the Challenge and host our round of 16, that's the goal. And then, move up the rankings and get away from the red zone.

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