Skrela was in his 'bubble'

Moments after kicking the winning penalty against Bath in Sunday's Heineken Cup Pool Five nail-biter at Stade Municipal, Toulouse fly-half David Skrela admitted that his side were fortunate to come out on top.

Moments after kicking the winning penalty against Bath in Sunday's Heineken Cup Pool Five nail-biter at Stade Municipal, Toulouse fly-half David Skrela admitted that his side were fortunate to come out on top.

Skrela was above all happy with the numbers on the scoreboard (18-16) rather than what happened on the pitch as Toulouse failed to cross the Bath try-line. The home side relied on six penalty goals from their new fly-half, who had a largely forgettable day aside from his performance from the kicking-tee.

“As soon as I saw we had a penalty, I knew I was going to be kicking for the win,” Skrela told L'Equipe.

“So I immediately went into my bubble. I tried to stay concentrated on the task so as not to put too much pressure on myself.

“I tried to take myself completely out of the context of the match to produce the most natural kicking action possible, like I'm used to doing in training. And then voilà, over it went.”

Skrela's injury-time effort had the Toulouse fans' hearts in their throats as the ball seemed to be sailing left of the uprights before drifting back and going over.

“It's true that with the wind the ball could come back and go between the posts, but one can never master the hazards of the weather. Tonight it came off for me, which is great for the team,” explained the fly-half.

Toulouse struggled to get past their English visitors and Skrela was honest enough to admit as much.

“They were the stronger team, it's true. As soon as the Englishman had the ball it was tough to catch them ,” he said.

“We defended a lot and were constantly under pressure. It was a bit better in the second half. We were always ahead on the scoreboard, but they took the lead with a superb move at the end of the match.

“We won thanks to that final penalty, but especially thanks to the never-say-die attitude of the team to win the ball back from the last restart.

“We knew that they would be very strong,” he added.

“They're are leading the English championship, they've only lost one match since the start of the season. We had to be very concentrated – really want the victory and go out and get it.

“If we lost today it would have been very bad for the rest of the season, we knew that. It's the European Cup, it's a level above the Top 14.

The dust had barely settled and already the French international's mind had turned to Glasgow and Toulouse's match their on Friday – a vital clash in his opinion.

“Friday's match in Glasgow will be in the same style, we'll have to fight hard again,” he said.

“We've just started the competition, we won today (Sunday) but we'll have to get points in Scotland to stay in a qualifying position.

“We'll have to apply ourselves because that match in Glasgow will be vital to stay in the competition. We're still on track but every match is tough in the European Cup.”