Springbok captain Siya Kolisi did not pull his punches when assessing how far behind the South African franchises and other sides are in comparison to the Top 14 outfits like Bordeaux-Begles and Toulouse.
“They make sure that the base of players that they have all play the big games and they’re able to play against anyone on any day.”
“You can’t deny it, they’re No.1 (Toulouse) and No.2 (Bordeaux) on the Top 14 table respectively.
“Toulouse are top of the French League and they’re also top of the Investec Champions Cup which are against teams all around Europe and South Africa."
“Toulouse played a big Top 14 clash against La Rochelle and backed a young side and only lost by two points, whereafter, they backed their first team to go to South Africa in different conditions."
“We can’t make excuses and say "it is cold here" or "this is happening." You find ways to adapt, and I feel the more we play, the more we’ll understand how to fit in both conditions."
“We need to play well, we need to play better. There’s no excuses, we’re not going to make excuses about it.”
“The Investec Champions Cup is a great competition which we’ve only been playing in for a couple of years now. We’ll definitely get better, but what I admire about the French teams is that they’ve got a great amount of squad depth."
“The biggest thing is making sure you create enough squad depth, and that’s one of the things we can learn from the French teams.”
“If the criticism comes it is what it is, and we’re going to have to make sure that if we get another opportunity to play we’ll be better.”
“If you play well you get the credit, if you play badly you take the criticism as well. You can’t make excuses, it’s life, it is what it is. Unfortunately, our job is based on results, and if we don’t get the results we get criticised."
“We know we’re not proud of that performance; Bordeaux played really well but we could’ve done better as a team as well."