XV of France: “It’s the hospital that doesn’t care about charity”, Philippe Saint-André replies dryly to Maxime Mermoz

The answer. It was expected. Here she is. Called a “coward” or even “baltringue” a few hours earlier by his former player Maxime Mermoz when he was the coach of the XV of France, Philippe Saint-André responded curtly to the former Toulon center on the microphone of RMC.

“I am sad for Maxime who will publish a story eight years later. There must be something wrong, I’m unhappy for him. I don’t even want to justify myself,” said the MHR coach before “justifying” anyway: “At RC Toulon, the starters were Mathieu Bastareaud and Matt Giteau. Bastareaud was France’s regular and Wesley Fofana was one of Europe’s best centre-backs, recalls Saint-André. The role of a coach is to make choices,” he explained.

“He caused a sensation, he will have many followers”

As a reminder, Maxime Mermoz especially criticizes “PSA” for not selecting him for the 2015 World Cup. Toulousain did not hesitate to call his former coach “baltringue” or even “coward”. Without forgetting to address his mandate at the helm of the Blues: “If I told you the speeches and how we trained, it was a joke. And he (Philippe Saint-André, ed) tried all the possible and imaginable guys not to make me to play”.

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Rugby: “Baltringue”, “coward” … former Stade Toulousain player Maxime Mermoz settles the score with Philippe Saint-André

“He caused a sensation, he will have many followers”, the 55-year-old confided ironically about the one who ended his career in 2020.

“The word coward, I have problems,” replied the Hérault coach. “I was slapped, I never ran away. When we took 60 points with France in the quarterfinals of the World Cup (against New Zealand). I took full responsibility for this failure in front of the press and closed me the mouth, honestly it is the hospital that cares about charity”, concluded “PSA” which obviously had something to answer Maxime Mermoz.