Lyon – Stade Toulousain: the “red and black” ready to show their fangs… How Toulouse prepared for this match by relying on its youngsters

Rejuvenate, yes, fast, no. After bringing out the heavy artillery during the European fortnight, Stade Toulousain put some of its best soldiers in the warm before Christmas. With the arrival of Stade Français next Sunday at the Stadium, and the long trip to Durban which will follow the trip to La Rochelle, the “red and black” staff are obliged to spare their troops to maximize their chances of achieving their objectives in the spring .

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This will be the case in Lyon this evening and at Marcel-Deflandre for the first match of 2025. To imagine that the Toulouse residents would be a little less hungry would be to know little about the house, which had built part of its coronations. last year on victorious trips to Clermont and Montpellier in the same kind of configuration. And again, the young guard was perhaps not as well supervised as it will be at Gerland.

Empower tomorrow’s executives very quickly

“All the matches count, they are all important, says David Mélé. Of course the players deserved to be on vacation and to be off this week. But that does not mean once again that we are rotating and we go with a C team or a D team.” There is indeed a leadership position to honor and emulation to maintain within the group. “Young people will play but I think that each player who wears the Stade Toulousaine jersey has the same DNA, the same philosophy. We will have to demonstrate it this Sunday.”

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Moreover, the stadium staff intends to continue to empower certain players, executives of tomorrow, like Joel Merkler or Léo Banos, mobilized in the Champions Cup. Because we must not forget that the bench at Exeter had an average age of 22.7 years at pack level (23 years old this evening). “Now that they have a little more experience, we try to push them to have a certain leadership and a duty to set an example in the eyes of the young players who are coming up, even younger than them at least,” says Mélé. […] In our speech, we also try to make them aware that it is now up to them to support the youngest. And above all to gain confidence on the ground with initiatives, with the speech that goes well, with the gesture that goes well, to be able to try to unite as much as possible behind them.”

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In their task, they will nevertheless be able to count on the reassuring presence of Mauvaka, Jelonch, Mallia, Capuozzo, Ahki and Kinghorn, all starters against LOU alongside other young guns who are starting to count (Ainu'u, Brennan, Vergé , Castro-Ferreira or Costes). Without forgetting Meafou and Roumat who will start the game on the bench.

The LOU at bay

And Mélé praises the group's appetite, ready to show their fangs when it's time to return to normal: “It's quite easy for us because they have the thirst and the desire to win. They are all competitors. Top 14, all the players who set foot on the field from 1 to 23 have the desire to do well, to win the matches. So in the end, it gives a certain emulation which makes our work a lot easier.

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Faced with a Lyon team already beaten twice at home, vegetating at the bottom of the ranking and having seen Karim Ghezal arrive at its head at the beginning of the month, but which “will be completely different from that of four weeks ago”, he It will therefore be a matter of staying the course. And provide once again proof, by the content and if possible by the result, that this group is difficult to satisfy.