At just 26 years old, Arthur Castant has a significant experience of the playoffs, since this pure product of Tarn rugby will perform its 5th consecutive national phases of national, this Saturday against Carcassonne. The hooker of SC Albi laid the context of this 1/4 finals 100% Occitan Rugby which will see the Tarnais (6th) arriving in long -tooth outsiders against Audois (3rd) who will benefit from the support of the public and the favors of the bookmakers. In this man match to paraphrase Arthur Castant’s words, the Albigensian Sporting Club will use its mental resources that appeared all over this season out of time and try to threw up in hostile land an epic that can bring them into the yellow and black guest book.
Carcassonne vs albi A meeting to follow live web TV from 2:40 pm this Saturday, May 3 on the #magsport: https://www.youtube.com/live/ZslU7bsKD4Q?si=CiHB0Y4CWZttZ6Ro
You are a young player but you already have 5 final phases on the clock. It gives you experience but I imagine that you apprehend it differently from the first time you had to be a little introverted compared to this event?
It is certain that we learn from year to year, we learn errors, we look at what we did the previous year, we try to set up things that, we hope, will work. It is sure that with the years, we are a few to have the experience of the final stages, we try to share it with the group which is quite young so we try to reassure everyone a little, to calm a little bit about the excitement that there can be but it is super positive. We try to frame all that so that the group is advancing well in the same direction, all together, and that we do not disperse too much, it was also a little the case this week when we are a few to have taken the lead a little on this to accompany the group and make sure that we all move forward together until Saturday.
Are there errors that, being younger, you made in the preparation of the final stages and that you corrected and rectified?
I think that when you are young, you don’t really know what to expect, you are going a bit in the unknown so you may have additional pressure. You may also discover emotions that you had never experienced, especially with professional groups, so it’s always a little weird to discover and then, when you live it several times, you know how it will happen. You know the pre-match atmosphere a little as well as a little bit of all the little flaws that there can be throughout the week until kick-off so you try to avoid the traps and make a good week to be ready at 3 p.m.
Albi / Carcassonne, two teams have been meeting for several seasons and who know each other well. What do you think are Carca’s strengths?
Carcassonne is a very big team that we have met several times in recent seasons as you said. As we know, it’s a team that is quite complete, they have quality in all positions so it will be a very intense match, we are prepared there, we had two confrontations in the regular season which did not shot in our favor but where, each time, we were not far away from there or with us with the scenario that we know. We learned from these clashes, we tried to correct the negative and keep the positive to best prepare this confrontation that awaits us on Saturday.
After all that has happened, the fact of being beaten and to finish 6th, is there the feeling of having nothing to lose and does it bring you a kind of lightness to prepare this kind of appointment?
I think that in any case, when you play a dam outside, we will say that you have fewer things to lose than the team that receives, it is a certainty, you qualified 6th so you invite yourself a little at the last moment at the party and, necessarily, the pressure is not on us. I think that never having beaten them is more a stat than anything else, we will not necessarily take it into account because what matters is the content that there was, I was talking about the last two games and it is the content of these last two games that counts, more than the final score although on Saturday, it will of course be that the final score that will count.
-Saturday will it be a men’s match?
Ah, it’s going to be a complicated match, a men’s match as you say, I agree. Théo has described the framework and the context in which it will be played, a stadium that will surely be full according to what we have been told, a Carcassonne team which is confident with a lot of experience. It will be very intense, we prepare for it but we too have weapons to make a big match, we also have weapons to impose a certain intensity so we will have to take up the challenge and after, that the best wins.
One of the awards is that you have still generated a lot of emotions this season and we see that there are already three buses of supporters who will come with perhaps a 4th. It has been a long time since so many supporters had not moved and it is a reward, the proof that you have generated enthusiasm and craze?
It is certain that we, as players, feel the support of the growing public in recent weeks, thanks or because, I do not know, at the events which took place a few weeks ago as well as with the good results that there were on the last games. I think that necessarily, people like to see the SCA win and shine in this division and that, when they saw that on the last games, they said that there was perhaps something to go see. There, we learn that there are buses of supporters who are preparing and we obviously feel supported, there is necessarily tension when approaching this match and as players, it also helps us to manage this tension knowing that we will not only be 23 or 28 there but that we will be much more numerous with all the Albigensians in the stands.
When you are discussed with the other 5 coaches, they call you a little team “scratching hair” or even, for some, “breaks”. Does that give you a “pest” status on service?
I do not know if it is necessarily the most suitable but, what is certain is that we are a team that is young and therefore, necessarily, which has the teeth which striking the prosecution. The advantage we have had is that we have guys who are young but who, as Théo said, are super responsible, workers, they are aware of the importance of the project and the importance of the players in the project. We will say that the turn that there was a few weeks ago made them a little maturity boost and therefore, we were forced to take charge of the thing. When you play with super strong values and hyper strong links between each player, you necessarily put a little more on the field and therefore, you put more intensity which makes it more complicated for the opponent to confront you. It is a set that makes yes, we can qualify as painful to play but what is certain is that we, we put everything and we see what is going on afterwards.
On some previous matches in Albi as Bourgoin or Périgueux, it was imprisoned that the opposing packs were much more massive and more solid. How do you sometimes resist or even, to take over these packs by making a lot of pounds whether in mixed or in the conquest phases? You were talking about a surplus of commitment and adrenaline but is that enough because there is still a technical part?
I do not know if it is the weight on the scale or the expected centimeters that make the quality of a pack, I am not sure. What is certain is that there are packs that are impressive in this division, you speak of Périgueux which is one of the big packs of the championship so the shocks are necessarily rough but I hope that they may say the same thing of us. When they face us, it should not be pleasant either so I think that is the intensity that we put in it, it is wanting to dominate the opponent and that is what we will try to do on Saturday.
And precisely, what will be the watchword for Saturday?
Pleasure and mission (smile).
Interview by Loïc Colombié
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