CONTINENTAL EUROPE captain Jean van de Velde praised his team as they fought back to trail Britain and Ireland by a single point after the second day of the Vivendi Seve Trophy at St-Nom-La-Breteche yesterday.
The Europeans won three of the five fourballs pairings and halved another to slash their overnight deficit from 4-1 to 5½ to 4½.
The change in fortunes justified Van de Velde’s changes to the pairings, while his opposite number, Paul McGinley, stuck with the combinations that did so well on the opening day.
Van de Velde said: “I’m very proud of what they’ve done and what I’ve seen today. They were really focused from the first hole. Yesterday was a shaky start and some of them couldn’t find their rhythm. Today they tried and they knew what they had to do to play well. I’m very happy.”
The coach was especially pleased with the efforts of number one pairing Thomas Bjorn and Raphael Jacquelin, who fought back from three down to square the round against Simon Dyson and Jamie Donaldson and take a crucial half. “It was a big half-point on the first game,” Van de Velde said. “They were trailing all the way and they managed to raise their game up considerably in the last five holes so I’m pleased with that last half-point.”
It seemed the Europeans were in a dominant mood after the pairings were mixed up and refreshed from the opening day. Miguel Angel Jimenez and fellow Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal beat British Open champion Darren Clarke and partner David Horsey 3 and 2, and rookie pairing Nicolas Colsaerts and Matteo Manassero claimed a two-up win over Scott Jamieson and Ross Fisher.
Van de Velde’s trust in inexperienced duo Colsaerts and Manassero paid off as they found their rhythm.
Van de Velde added: “Matteo is 30th in the world so of course he’s a rookie but he’s a pretty good rookie. You still have to implement the trust you have in them. It’s not because it didn’t work out I was going to throw everything away. They held on through the pressure and they went down to the wire. They could have closed it on 17 but fine, he didn’t, they were here on the 18th on the green and I am very pleased with that.”
Paul McGinley was disappointed after the change in fortunes for his team but saved special praise for Lee Westwood.
The BI pairing of Westwood and Mark Foster was the only real positive for McGinley, as they beat Anders Hansen and Francesco Molinari 5 and 3. Speaking of Westwood, McGinley said: “I think he won that match on his own. He . . . carried the team today.”
