This Friday, at the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, Stade Toulousain and UBB meet in the Top 14 final. Find out everything you need to know about the match before kick-off.
The Toulouse experience versus the passion of Bordeaux. This Friday, Stade Toulousain and Union Bordeaux-Bègles meet at the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille during a historic Top 14 final. While the Rouge et Noir will defend their title, the UBB, for its part, will have keen to win the first Brennus Shield of his career. But for that, you will have to treat yourself to the Toulouse ogre, the most successful club in France with 22 coronations.
Why the Vélodrome stadium?
Like the 2024 Tour de France, which will not end on the Champs-Elysées for the first time in its history, the Top 14 final is moving this year. Usually, it is played at the Stade de France, with the exception of 2016 when it took place at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. But for 2024, the Olympic year, this poster between Toulouse and Bordeaux will be played on the lawn of the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, a first in the history of the French championship.
If the last stage of the Tour de France and the Top 14 final are relocated to the south of France this year, this can be explained by the holding of the Olympic Games this summer in Paris. With this global sporting event, the Stade de France is unavailable until the Games take place. But this Marseille venue is perfectly suited to rugby, where the atmosphere is often heated, as during the 2023 World Cup. After the match against South Africa, Thomas Ramos expressed his feelings. “We couldn’t hear each other two meters away because there was so much noise,” he commented. Friday evening, the same scenario is likely to happen.
An experience that contrasts everything
As Stade Toulousain prepares to play its thirtieth Top 14 final, Union Bordeaux-Bègles is making its debut at this level of the competition. And who else but the people of Toulouse to test themselves for the first time. Facing them, the Bordelais find players who have experience of these shocks. During the last four editions, Stade Toulousain has simply won the Brennus Shield three times (2019, 2021 and 2023). In 2020, no trophies were awarded due to the health crisis. But Toulouse will especially be able to rely on their success in the European Cup against Leinster, the sixth European trophy in their history, a record.
An experience of winning that the people of Bordeaux do not have. In recent years, UBB has not been able to reach the final step, whether in the championship or in the European Cup. The Bordeaux club was a semi-finalist of the Top 14 in 2021, 2022 and 2023, a semi-finalist of the European Challenge in 2020 and a semi-finalist of the Champions Cup in 2021. And it is in 2024, after three consecutive failures in the last four, that the Bordelais won the first final for their club. In Marseille, UBB will have the opportunity to lift the first trophy in its history.
What results in the regular season?
Not jealous. During the regular season, both teams each won their home game. The Toulouse residents were the first to launch hostilities. At home, they dominated the Bordelais (29-22). But the latter insisted on responding to them. In Bordeaux, UBB took its painful revenge (31-28).
This Top 14 final will therefore decide between the two teams and designate the new 2024 French champion.
Bordeaux desire
Unlike Stade Toulousain, directly qualified for the semi-final of the Top 14 thanks to its first place in the championship after the regular season, UBB had to go through the play-offs. An often tricky route to reach the final of the Top 14. Third after 26 days, the Bordelais faced Racing 92 (6th of the season) in the play-off.
With their victory over the Parisians (31-17), they obtained their ticket for the semi-finals against other Parisians, Stade Français. But the march was greater for the UBB, which faced the second of the season. Nothing to worry about for Bordeaux, who qualified at the last second against Stade Français. And the Bordelais can thank the post which deprived the Parisians of an extension. But after three consecutive failures in the semi-finals, too bad for the manner, the UBB holds its final.
At what time and on which channel to watch the Top 14 final?
The kickoff for this historic final between Stade Toulousain and Union Bordeaux-Bègles will be given at 9:05 p.m. To view the meeting, several options are available to you. The opposition between Toulouse and Bordeaux will be broadcast on France 2, Canal+ and Canal+ Sport.
