Juandré Kruger: "Not to repeat the same scenario"
The Toulon second row attended the pre-game press conference last Wednesday, ahead of Day 2 of the group stage in the Champions Cup, against Benetton Trevise.
Juandré, does this game look like a tricky one?
The Champions Cup is a top-level competition, but the team we play against does not matter, so to speak. The most important thing is to prepare well during the week. We did a good training session yesterday and we’ve carried on in the same way today [Wednesday]. We worked on the game plan we wish to set up. That’s the most important, not the team we’re up against, even if we know it’s a good team, with many international players.
What are your feelings after the narrow victory against Scarlets?
We were disappointed not to have handled the game better when leading 18-3. Things were more complicated afterwards. We had good spells during the game and more difficult ones in the latter part. We have to learn how to control this and handle things better. We all want to play perfectly for eighty minutes, but unexpected things still turn up during the games, small details that put everything into question, and it’s up to us to cope with them better. It doesn’t have to do with our fitness and we have many experienced players in our squad. The same thing happened against Bordeaux and against Scarlets – I hope this won’t be the case against Trevise.
How have you been feeling since you came back from injury and what is your opinion on Swan Rebbadj rise to the fore?
I feel very well. As for Swan, he plays well and I’m really happy for him. It’s good for him and for the whole team: the team improves through internal competition and that’s a good thing.
What do you know about the Benetton Trevise team?
When I used to play for Northampton and, then, for Racing ‘92, I sometimes played against Italian teams. Trevise are a good team. It will be a high-level game and a crucial one. That’s the European Cup, after all. They played well against Ospreys (winning 16-6) and against Edinburgh (winning 20-17), even against Bath (a 23-0 defeat that was triggered by a try by Brew at the 71st minute). They play well and their defence is quite solid. We’re not thinking about the number of points we could take. The most important thing is to go there to win and we’ll see what happens afterwards. We mustn’t think about the bonus point before the game starts.