Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday June 28, 2024 at 9:58 a.m.
The Toulousains, who challenge Union Bordeaux-Bègles on Friday evening in the Top 14 final (at 9:05 p.m. in Marseille), have managed their season without too many jolts. Focus on their 2023-2024 season.
Their regular season
The regular season for Toulouse has not been a long, quiet river, but not that far all the same. Like all big armadas, the Stadium was initially handicapped by the absence of its countless internationals due to the World Cup, but the calendar had still been more or less adapted accordingly. Antoine Dupont, for example, returned on the sixth day against Perpignan (43-34).
From the fifth to the eleventh day, the French and European champions still experienced an almost caricatured alternation of home victories and away defeats (Pau, Castres, Stade Français, La Rochelle), before step on the accelerator to win six times in a row, a good part of which was during the Doubles of the Tournament. Enough to afford a wildcard of three defeats in four matches from the 18th to the 21st day, at the heart of the long-awaited return of Romain Ntamack at the end of March, then above all to overtake Stade Français on the wire (49-18) at three final matches in order to take control.
Their final phase
Since this first place allowed them to skip the play-offs, an idea that is always welcome in order to take a breather and have an extra week of recovery compared to the opponent in the semi-finals and possibly the one in the final (as is the case for UBB this year), Toulouse went straight into the last four for a semi-final against one of their new best enemies, La Rochelle.
A supremacy that was confirmed for the Haut-Garonnais, even if it was not the fiercest fight they had to deliver against the Rochelais (39-23). Indeed, the latter literally sabotaged themselves by chaining two expulsions in the second period, in the 43rd then in the 61st minute, while they were leading at the break. The Toulousains all expressed their full awareness that they will have to do much better in the final.
