Stade Français gave itself a little breathing space last week by winning against Perpignan (24-7) in a duel of fear. A welcome breath of oxygen. But there is one area in which the capital club remains a solid red lantern this season in the championship: it is the only team not to have collected a single point away from home since the start of the 2024-2025 campaign.
Bordeaux. Pau. Lyon. Castres. La Rochelle. Bayonne. Six trips, six defeats and not even a tiny defensive bonus. 202 points conceded, 89 scored. Defeat after defeat and even broth after broth. Unfortunately for the men of Laurent Labit, the rugby director of the Parisian club, the most likely is that this series will continue on Sunday evening at the end of the 13th day and of the year 2024, since Paris visits Toulouse, in a match relocated to the Stadium and unbalanced on paper.
“I won't have time to go to Lourdes, but we're still going to pray around the tree“, Labit had quipped after the success against the USAP, already turning towards the next ordeal announced far from the Parisian bases. Even while using humor, it is indeed the immensity of the Sunday challenge that he underlined here .
Joe Marchant (Stade Français)
Credit: Getty Images
If we approach this match with the mindset that we're going to take 60, we'll take 80
“They had a bit of a difficult period, but when you see the last match against Perpignan, it's strong, they have powerful players“, wants to temper Laurent Thuery, the coach of the Toulouse defense before saying that the French champions have “of memory“, remembering in particular that Paris had come to do “a big match here two years ago“. But two years is a long way away. Even last season, the one which saw Stade Français surprising the leader for a good while during the regular phase, seems to belong to another era as the Ile-de-France difficulties are major this year.
The players are trying to move forward with their heads held high, like Yoan Tanga, who announced at a press conference on Friday that his team was going to Toulouse.with the ambition to do something“, while admitting that the adversary, on paper, was “stronger“. “If we approach this match with the mindset that we are going to take 60 (points), we will take 80he insists. We need to focus more on ourselves, regardless of the opponent. Even though we know that today, they are stronger than us.”
Laurent Labit did not say anything else: “Above all, we will try to concentrate on ourselves, try to have a big match and survive against a big Toulouse. It's a clash of extremes. I would have liked it to be a different shock but there has been a lot of improvement over the last few weeks according to him.” To the point of considering anything other than a seventh defeat without bonus in seven trips this season? It's unlikely, especially with a somewhat overhauled team, but with a good prayer under the tree, you never know.
