“If we win tomorrow (Friday, editor’s note) evening,” said fullback Thomas Ramos on Thursday, “we will reach a milestone in the history of our club, and of our sport in general”: it is now done.
Clinics
Faced with clinical, pragmatic Toulouse, much more precise, fast and disciplined than their opponents, Maxime Lucu’s teammates defended with rage, tried, tried to play their rugby, the Rouge et Noir were far too strong.
On the bench, as the minutes ticked away towards the final whistle, the Bordelo-Bèglais seemed stunned, unable to believe it, as if struck by lightning.
Their coach Yannick Bru had warned on Thursday that a final must be played for, not considered lucky to have taken part in it and above all “not to be spectators”.
However, this is what the UBB players seemed to be: feverish, waiting, too frozen by the stakes, this terrible and exciting stake at the same time to win a first Brennus Shield.
Their three-quarters, so brilliant during the season, were weaned from balls, like Damian Penaud. The other UBB winger, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, was released prematurely, as a symbol of the impotence of the “Patrouille de France”.
Losing bets
The “bets” attempted by the Bordeaux-Bègles management, that is to say starting the pillar Ben Tameifuna and especially the fly-half Mathieu Jalibert, barely back from injuries but ultimately probably too weak, did not turn out to be winners.
Jalibert, replaced at 54e minute with his head down and under a few whistles, was thus at the origin of the first Toulouse try, one of his first kicks having fallen directly into the arms of Thomas Ramos.
Relaunching the game, the Toulouse back set the red and black machine in motion, until Antoine Dupont’s strong try, from the 7e minute, his first in the Top 14 final.
The other gamble of the UBB staff, to play Tameifuna when he had been announced as out at the beginning of the week, was not the most successful either.
The Tongan prop did not look at his best and accumulated errors in the scrum, penalizing his teammates, appearing to suffer several times with the shoulder until his exit in the 47th minute.e minute, to the applause of the entire Vélodrome.
Succession of tests
Dupont then did a Dupont: he who had already been accelerating the pace, varying his play, since the start of the match, allowed himself the luxury of a double in a personal exploit.
Following a maul, on a ball recovered by Mauvaka, the captain of the French the Blues Maxime Lucu, before going to flatten (22-3, 23e).
In the second half, the Toulousains, in full control, were initially content to manage, bringing on all their substitutes so that the party was complete.
Before the match turned into a nightmare for UBB, with a succession of tries from the 64th minute.
More than a recitation, the match turned into humiliation. The Vélodrome could sing and the Toulouse party could begin.
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