the favorites and scratches of our special correspondents after the triumph at Stade Toulousain

Special envoys to Marseille

FAVORITES

Dupont always stronger

Where will he stop? How does he get stronger from one outing to the next? When we saw Antoine Dupont attempt, and succeed, the sombrero trick on his opposite number Maxime Lucu to go and score his second personal try of the evening after 22 minutes, we understood that it would be a new masterclass. To the point of surprising his coach again? “He got a kick blocked and missed another one. So he surprised me yes, but not in a good way.”replies Ugo Mola ironically. “What do you want me to tell you? Antoine has been called upon sporadically this season and, each time, he has been able to be the great player that he is. Its status is no longer to be defined…” Now, let’s take a look at the challenge of 7.

This season, he has participated in three tournaments, for two titles and a 3rd place. Enough to fuel serious hopes for the Olympic Games, especially since this time he will prepare seriously by doing the preparation course with France 7 in July. “I took him out ten minutes before the match for that,” Mola continues, still second-rate. Jérôme Daret (the coach of France 7, NLDR) will be able to thank me. I will return Antoine to him unhurt…” And to conclude with a final tribute, and a final snub. “Few players have the ability to change, to revolutionize their sport. I think Antoine is capable of it. Maybe we should start him at XIII now…”

Willis, the English force

“I stayed at Wasps for 8 seasons and didn’t win anything. There, in two years, I won three titles.” When he arrived in Toulouse in November 2022 after the liquidation of Coventry Wasps, Jack Willis was unknown to the French public. He has since become a must-have at Stade Toulousain. An essential cog, an important pawn in Ugo Mola’s chessboard. After his remarkable performance in the Champions Cup final against Leinster, the English flanker was once again impressive on Friday against UBB. Formidable in defense and in obscure tasks, he also distinguished himself with the ball in hand with several furious charges in the Girondins defense. A colossal match. And a second French champion title in his pocket. A track record already well filled with the Red and Black. With, each time, a leading role in the final. The mark of the (very) greats.

Read alsoTop 14 Final: 56 points difference between Stade Toulousain and UBB, a record in the history of the French championship

Sad for Bordeaux-Bègles

UBB, for its first Top 14 final, did not deserve to receive such a punishment. On paper, there is nothing to say: the Toulousains dominated the game and signed a record performance at this stage of the competition. Opposite, the Bordeaux team never existed, swept aside without ceremony from the first 20 minutes. The rest was nothing but a long ordeal. Not in the image of their season and the great performances they have regularly signed. It is the harsh law of sport, we only remember the winners, especially when they display such mastery and such efficiency. But we can only have a thought for these poor Bordeaux team, tossed around and punished like no team had ever been in the final. Let us hope that they will learn from it and come back stronger. Lucu’s tears, his teammates’ dejection and Yannick Bru’s strong words apologizing to the Bordeaux supporters were enough to break the heart.

CLAW STRIKES

The missed meeting of the UBB

A sad first. Union Bordeaux-Bègles, in constant progress since its arrival in the elite in 2011, reached the Top 14 final for the first time in its history. Thanks in particular to spectacular and effective offensive play. And then woes… Yannick Bru’s team got caught in the dust at the worst time. On the last step. And in great widths. The staff had tried two bets by launching Jalibert and Tameifuna, who were thought to be out of this final, and it didn’t work. Both were overwhelmed, short of pace. In the end, the Bordelais appeared completely exhausted, physically overwhelmed by the pace of the Toulouse residents. UBB was the first team since Castres in 2018 to reach the final after going through the play-offs. This was seen on the ground, the accumulation of efforts to reach the Vélodrome was fatal for them. Bordeaux-Bègles will have learned one thing: it is better to finish in the first two places in the championship to regain some freshness in the final sprint. Hard learning at a very high level.

The useless humiliation of the last recovery

Stade Toulousain led 54 to 3, had just scored five tries in a quarter of an hour against the devastated Bordelais, unable to stop the surge. The regular time had just ended but we could tell that the executioners did not want to let go of their victims; Trying to restart from afar. Once, twice, three times. Before finding the flaw. On a ball lost by Buros, Mauvaka restarts from his in-goal and breaks the line. Three-quarters are in support and, on his wing, Capuozzo has fun with Penaud, overtaking him to flatten the 9 into a corner^e test of his team. Magnificent but useless, even a bit unhealthy, to press a little more on the already raw wounds of the people of Bordeaux. Who will mostly remain lying on the lawn, definitely dejected by this last Toulouse lesson.

Paul Costes’ skid

At first we thought it was good-natured. Friendly even. A large part of the Toulouse team invaded the conference room, some just in their underwear, to, we thought, share a little of their joy with the journalists present. And then Antoine Dupont sat down behind the big table, Thomas Ramos, opposite him, played the journalist. With arrogance. “A stupid question, Mr. Dupont, in relation to the Vélodrome?” Nothing innocent. The day before, the Toulouse captain had hardly appreciated being asked about his bad memories of the Vélodrome, between a red card against South Africa and his broken jaw against Namibia in the World Cup. It was therefore not a question of celebrating, but of openly mocking the media, to say the least, which had been praising this superb Stade Toulousain team for months. Equipped with magnums of champagne, a few players then began to generously shower the careless journalists who remained within range. This is the moment that Paul Costes chose to aggressively address representatives of the press. “You’re just here for the buzz, state-bought media!” And to leave the sentence on this projection which stunned all the journalists present, wondering for a long time about the hidden meaning of this sentence. Without finding the deeper meaning…