Ogre and “Little Thumb”
On one side of the ring: the Toulouse ogre, defending champion and already with 22 Brennus Shields in his display case, crowned for a sixth time in the Champions Cup in the spring and who dreams of a new Europe/Championship double already achieved in 1996 and 2021 because, as his opener Romain Ntamack says: “We are never jaded”.
On the other: Bordeaux-Bègles, the “Little Thumb”, as its hooker Jefferson Poirot described it, fruit of the union in 2006 between Stade Bordeaux and CA Bègles-Bordeaux and of which this is the first final.
“We were very, very bad. It’s a big, big, big black spot.”
As the former Stade Toulouse second row Fabien Pelous sums it up, “it’s the opposition between the euphoria of a team which is going to play its first final versus the experience”.
So yes, on paper, the Gironde club is the “outsider” in this final. But in one match, anything is possible, especially since a first title would erase the enormous frustration suffered during the 2019-2020 season, stopped due to Covid while Christophe Urios’ UBB was flying over the championship .
Hares versus tortoise
Also on the menu in Marseille: the best attack of the regular season, Toulouse (765 points) against the third, UBB (677 pts), with the cherry on the cake being the Girondin winger Damian Penaud, second best try scorer of the season (14 in 15 matches) and king of “dezoning”.
With its armada of internationals, led by Admiral Antoine Dupont, the club coached since 2015 by Ugo Mola shines with its ability to take advantage of the slightest counter-attack ball, its qualities under high balls and its science of recovery.
Against the Red and Blacks, the Bordeaux three-quarters Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Nicolas Depoortere and Yoram Moefana were certainly not left out, but in the semi-final against Stade Français, they were upstaged by their pack of forwards, more anonymous, but devilishly effective on the balls carried.
This phase of play, a legacy of the legendary Béglaise “turtle” invented by the “Rapetous” Serge Simon, Vincent Moscato and Philippe Gimbert, allowed hooker Maxime Lamothe to score twice.
A success appreciated at the end of the match by his coach Yannick Bru who, at the time of returning to Stade Toulouse where he played most of his playing career, knows more than anyone that UBB will need ” gather (one’s) strength.”
“Don’t make mistakes”
It is not Mola’s style to take up the famous speech of a certain Bernard Laporte, a former Béglais, at half-time of a France-Italy match in 2002, repeating to his players not to “make mistakes”, but he could, so much were his players penalised during the semi-final against La Rochelle.
Out of a total of 15 penalties conceded by Toulouse, the majority were for ground play, for poorly negotiated rucks: “We were very, very poor […] “It’s a big, big black mark,” Mola insisted after the match.
An area that absolutely needs to be improved because we know that the referees, who are being lectured by World Rugby, are very sensitive to it. As much as they are to dangerous tackles or mood swings, which earned two red cards to the Rochelais, changing the course of their semi-final.
Jalibert and Tameifuna tenured at UBB, Toulouse deprived of Lebel and Faasalele
Bordeaux-Bègles fly-half Matthieu Jalibert, who injured his hamstring in early June and had announced the end of his season, and prop Ben Tameifuna, who has a right shoulder injury, are starting players for the Top 14 final on Friday in Marseille against Toulouse.
On the Marseille pitch on Thursday, Jalibert, his left thigh bandaged, worked on his support and made a few runs away from the group at the start of the captain’s training. The powerful right pillar had for his part normally participated in the traditional “Captain’s Run” in the middle of his teammates.
UBB coach Yannick Bru, during a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Vélodrome stadium, affirmed that a decision concerning these two players would be taken “at the end of the captain’s training”.
On the Toulouse side, international winger Matthis Lebel, injured in the back, is out of the final. “We have had our share of injuries,” declared his manager Mola at a press conference. “Matthis Lebel will not be in the match. Piula Faasalele has three broken apophyses and will therefore not play either.”
The 25-year-old winger suffered a back injury while scoring his team’s last try last week in the semi-final against La Rochelle (39-23). It is the Italian Ange Capuozzo who takes his place on the bench.
Left prop Cyril Baille suffered a fractured fibula and ruptured ligaments in his left ankle during the same match. “He was operated on and re-operated on and was only able to return home yesterday (Wednesday),” said Mola, also deprived of second row Emmanuel Meafou, injured in a thigh in the Champions Cup final last month.
Toulouse
Bordeaux/Bègles
TOULOUSE. Ramos; Mallia, Chocobares, Ahki, Kinghorn; (o) R. Ntamack, (m) Dupont (cap.); Willis, Roumat, Cros; Flament, Arnold; Aldegheri, Mauvaka, Neti. Substitutes: Marchand, Ainu’u, Vergé, Brennan, Graou, Capuozzo, Costes, Merkler
BORDEAUX-BEGLES. Pregnant; Penaud, Depoortere, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; (o) Jalibert, (m) Funny (cap.); Diaby, TM. Tatafu, Vergnes-Taillefer; Coleman, Cazeaux; Tameifuna, Lamothe, Poirot. Subs: Maynadier, Boniface, Douglas, Bochaton, Samu, P. Abadie, Uberti, Taufa.
Referee: Mr. Ludovic Cayre.
Friday 9:05 p.m. live on France 2 and Canal+.
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