Duane Vermeulen : "We need to win"

The RCT captain is interviewed by rctoulon.com two days before a possibly complicated away game against Brive, Saturday evening (kick-off: 8:45 p.m. CET).
Duane, what were the feelings of the players this week, after James O’Connor was kept in custody last week-end?
Well, you know, we succeeded in remaining focused on the game. Everything that happens outside the pitch has not affected us. We’ve been focusing on the Brive game for many days: we’ve had the time to prepare for this away game and we’re keen on delivering the goods there.
You know Brive always make it difficult for the visiting team…
Oh, yes, it’s going to be a tough game and we know it. We’d like to go up a notch after the game against Lyon and start winning the away games. We want to qualify for the play-offs, so we have to win more and more games as the regular season draws to a close.
There were not many games played in February. Did this enable you to do background work on your game, as if it were another off-season?
Indeed, we could carry out effective work. The training sessions were more demanding physically and this has bound us together even more. We could also work on our game plan and we still had more time to put the finishing touch to a few details. Those are positive things.
So, no excuse for the forthcoming game?
One should never have any excuse. We need to win, no need to calculate. We know that Brive is not the easiest of places to grab a win, but we need four points and we’ll give our best.
(photo credits: Magali Ruffato for RCT)