The home defeat against Union Bordeaux-Bègles (12-16) was a crazy surprise. The one on the Castres pitch (28-23) is more about the lack of reaction. Indeed, Toulouse has not won in Tarn for five years and bowing to it, this Saturday, October 5, is therefore not a huge surprise.
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However, what surprises Ugo Mola and his staff is above all the lack of reaction from its players after the defeat against UBB. “TEveryone talks to us about what we have been, but the important thing is what we are going to become. For the moment, what we have been does not nourish us enough to play leading roles in the championship. Now we’re going to bow our heads”, confides the Toulouse manager after the meeting.
Attractive, but lacking in success, Stade Toulousain played its game without managing to get into the opposing goal as often as usual. On the Castres pitch, the Rouge et Noir made more runs and offloads than the locals, but in vain. With three tries on the clock, compared to two for the visitors, the Castres showed themselves to be much more realistic.
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However, Toulouse was well and truly dominating at half-time (11-20). In the second act, the Castres forwards delivered a real performance in defense and in the pressure put on the Toulouse attack. After the match, Tarn fly-half Louis Lebrun even had fun saying that he would buy them fast food to thank them.
Proof of this is that Captain Mathieu Babillot was particularly happy with this comeback, at the microphone of Canal +. “We are at 9 points at halftime. There, we said to ourselves that we were not going to give up. We must congratulate our front row which was rather dominant. Everything hasn’t been perfect, but you have to know how to win these matches, because Toulouse losing twice in a row is very rare.”, he recalls.
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But then, Is it so rare to see Toulouse lose two games consecutively? The last time this happened was seven months ago, after two setbacks by Perpignan and UBB (again). In the championship, it generally only happens once a season that the Haut-Garonnais concede several defeats in a row.
However, these shortage periods occur more often in the winter, when the squad is in demand between the Champions Cup, Top 14 and XV of France. To find a trace of a series of defeats at the start of autumn, we have to go back to the year 2020 when COVID-19 prevented supporters from going to the stadiums. Unlike this period, Ugo Mola must surely count on the contribution of his public, next week against ASM Clermont, to restart the machine.
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