Following the match, Richie Murphy, told the media that while he was pleased with the second half and to advance in the competition, he was also disappointed with aspects of the first-half performance in Montpellier.
On advancing to Challenge Cup Quarter-Final this week
“We are happy to be there. We weren’t at our best today and that was a bit disappointing, although we showed a bit of good character in the second half to try and get back into the game. Some of that was helped by a red card and a couple of yellows, but when that did happen, we put together a number of good phases to see the game out which was pleasing, but we have a lot of work to do."
Half-time review
"We talked at half-time about how we hadn’t been accurate and how the first half was quite poor, our energy levels looked a bit off in comparison to last week and that was probably due to coming back from. South Africa, it’s been a big toll on the players over the past few weeks.
That’s had a big impact on the first half, but in the second half the guys were pretty focused and there was more energy in them during the second half. In the first couple of minutes we looked much better than we did in the previous half."
On keeping calm heads with Montpellier red card
"I think we done that reasonably well. We had a couple of decisions on whether we kicked to the corner, or took a scrum, and we need to be better at keeping everyone on the same page. We are working together to find the scores, we forced things a little bit in the half but we put together enough phases to get over the line. Once we got ahead, we finished the game off well."
On Scott Wilson's first try
“He’s been really good, he takes everything in his stride and we are constantly talking to him about little things that he can keep improving. He has a good attitude, there aren’t too many 21-year-old tightheads playing at this level. It's how competent he is and he has a big future ahead of him, in terms of getting out of a white jersey and into a green one."
Clermont trip
"Clermont got ahead of the Cheetahs but it became a tight affair. We’ll dust ourselves down, review hard and get a good feeling ahead of a quarter-final in Europe. It’s a great opportunity to get into the latter stages."
Back-row star and Player of the Match, David McCann, told the press that it was an important win for the province, however there are many aspects of the match that need looked at in this week's review of the game.
Post-Montpellier thoughts
“We really dug in and it would have been really easy after that first half to not turn it around because of all the travel recently but we performed better in the second half.
We had a few harsh words at half-time and started off well, the red card happened and that affected it. They can also make games weird, it can make it unbalanced on both sides but we were taking time in our processes, taking time in our maul and got our rewards.
We squeezed them and by the end of the game they were absolutely knackered. Apart from a line break that put us under pressure we were in their 22 for most of it. We need to keep going, get better in our processes and let the results take after themselves."
On difficulty of recent travel
“It asks a lot of you mentally and it’s part of the job. Physically your legs can go a bit earlier in the game and can feel a bit heavy. I think that balance with the 6:2 really energised us with Dave Ewers and Harry Sheridan coming on and gave us a new energy."
On advancing in Europe
" There's no point getting through a game like that and not taking the learnings. We won’t be thinking we are brilliant because that wasn’t the case, we need to work on a lot and drive that for Clermont.
Winning is key for us. We know we can win these games but consistency is the big thing. The sky is the limit for this team, we are in a good position to be in. We have a good base to get better from."