Interview with Eric Saminadin, coach of JSVDT

The caledonian newspaper "Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes" sat down with the head-coach of the champion of New Caledonia, JS Vallee-du-Tir, before the Pacific Champions Cup. His team will play AS Aorai, champion of Tahiti and three-time defending champion of the Pacific Cup. The winner of the game will be playing in the French Cup next.

This will be your 8th participation in the Pacific Champions Cup. How do you see this year's game?
We are confident even if our players were not able to attend all of our training sessions because of their work duties. We made a good season and everybody is eager to put the ice on the cake.

Do you expect a full squad to play against the tahitian champions?
Because of the tournament's rules, only 10 players are allowed on the game sheet so I will have to cut two players from my regular roster. We also lost Raymond Weber and Jean-Christophe Arnaud who left us to play in France. We have a nice roster with some great youngsters like Yann Mathelon, who just keeps improving, Gerard Girier-Dufournier and Stephane Saminadin. I can also relay on the veterans like Jean-Bernard Fuller or Fabrice Chaliot.

You already played Aorai in the past, what do you think of this team?
We lost last year's game in the last minutes after leading most of the game. I have to admit that the tahitians are very good players, they got some great wing players and sharp shooters. We will have to produce a good defense and probably a pressure defense behind the three-point line, at least in the opening minutes. We will make some adjustments in the game if we need to.