There was only one team on the field. In the Top 14 final, Stade Toulousain humiliated Union Bordeaux Bègle, 59-3, this Friday, June 28, in Marseille. Building on its experience, the club, led by an Antoine Dupont of great evenings, thus raises its 23rd Brennus shield and signs its third European Cup/championship double.
This match will go down in the history of French rugby: Stade Toulousain will inflict the heaviest defeat in a Top 14 final on Bordeaux. With nine tries to zero, the Southerners made more than reciting their lessonwrapping up the match from the first minutes to always lead the score and above all take control of the game.
They proved that they were more than a big club, with a unique record, a golden generation, made to win and set to last. “If we win tomorrow [vendredi, NDLR] evening, confided full-back 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.
Toulouse above
In front of clinical, pragmatic, much more precise, fast and disciplined Toulouse residents that their opponents, Maxime Lucu’s teammates, may have defended with rage, attempted, 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 people of 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 challenge at the same time to win a first Shield of Brennus. 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”.
In Bordeaux, 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 in the 54th minute with his head down and under a few whistles, was at the origin of Toulouse’s first try, one of his first kicks falling directly into the arms of Thomas Ramos. Restarting the game, The Toulouse full-back got the red and black machine going, until Antoine Dupont scored a powerful tryfrom the 7th minute, his first in the Top 14 final.
The other bet of the UBB staffplaying Tameifuna even though he had been announced as a withdrawal at the start of the week, was not the happiest either. The Tongan pillar did not seem at his best and accumulated errors in the scrum, penalizing his teammates, appearing to suffer from shoulder pain several times until his exit in the 47th minute, to the applause of the entire Vélodrome.
Dupont then made Dupont : he who had already picked up the pace, varying the game, since the start of the match, had the luxury of a double on a personal exploit. Following a maul, on a ball recovered by Mauvaka, the captain of the French XV and future player of the Olympic Sevens team, took a small kick for himself, above his liner among the Blues Maxime Lucu, before going to flatten (22-3, 23rd).
In the second half, the Toulouse team, in complete control, were initially content to manage, bringing in all their replacements 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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