Top 14 – Final: Toulouse against Bordeaux-Bègles, more than a simple “Garonne derby”

. 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 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 pillar Jefferson Poirot called it, fruit of the union in 2006 between Stade Bordelais and CA Bègles-Bordeaux and for which this is the first final.

As the former Stade Toulouse second row, Fabien Pelous, summarizes it for AFP, “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 Girondin club is the “underdog” of this final. But “in one match, anything can happen”, as scrum-half Maxime Lucu said on Thursday, especially since a first title would erase the enormous frustration suffered during the 2019-2020 season, stopped because of Covid while Christophe Urios’ UBB dominated the championship.

What’s more with the return at the last minute of serious injuries: opener Matthieu Jalibert and pillar Ben Tameifuna are finally in the starting line-up.

. Hare versus tortoise

Also on the menu in Marseille: the best attack of the regular season, Toulouse (765 points), with the cherry on the cake being Girondin winger Damian Penaud, second best try scorer of the season (14) and king of “dezoning”.

With its armada of internationals, led by Admiral Antoine Dupont, the club trained 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 Rouge et Noir, the Bordeaux three-quarters Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Nicolas Depoortere and Yoram Moefana are certainly not left out but, in the semi-final against Stade français, they were stolen the show by their pack of forwards, more anonymous, but devilishly effective on carried balls.

This phase of play, a legacy of the legendary Bègles “turtle”, allowed hooker Maxime Lamothe to score twice.

A success appreciated at the end of the match by his coach Yannick Bru who, upon 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 player from Béglais, 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, the majority were for ground play, for poorly negotiated rucks: “We were very, very poor (…) it’s a big, big black spot,” insisted Mola after the match.

A sector that will absolutely have to be improved because we know that the referees are very sensitive to it. As much as on the dangerous tackles or the mood swings, which earned the Rochelais two red cards, changing the course of their semi-final.

Given the stakes, discipline in general will be one of the keys to the match refereed by Ludovic Cayre, as Pelous further clarified to AFP: “frankly, I think that Stade Toulouse has no rival, even if certain elements can disturb things, notably arbitration.”

Serge Simon, for his part, is just hoping for “a very, very good final”, he told AFP, “with lots of play and magnificent things”.