Bordeaux-Bègles, with a reshuffled team, put an end to Toulouse’s invincibility streak at home (16-12) on Sunday at the end of the 4th day of Top 14 and took their revenge three months after their humiliation in the final.
Asked several times in recent weeks about the date of their last defeat in the championship in front of their public, the Toulouse residents, visibly sincere, were unable to answer.
It was February 11, 2022, at the Stadium, against Stade français (29-28), before keeping their pitch clean for 33 consecutive matches (31 wins, 2 draws).
The series ended on Sunday, this time at the Ernest-Wallon stadium, where the public, blown by the final whistle, had lost the habit of seeing their team lose.
The UBB undoubtedly wanted a little more after being soundly beaten (59-3) at the end of June in Marseille for the first Top 14 final in its history.
– “LBB” in all the good moves –
The Gironde club wiped the slate clean, showed that the gap was not so huge between the two rivals from the banks of the Garonne and incidentally dislodged the double title holders from first place in the ranking, now second thanks to their defensive bonus point.
The Bordeaux-Bègles staff had however made nine changes in their starting XV compared to the one who had crushed Racing 92 (52-34) the previous week, notably leaving the top scorer in the championship Damian Penaud (5 tries) to rest. ), the young international center Nicolas Depoortere or the fullback Romain Buros.
However, he had lined up Louis Bielle-Biarrey, at full-back, and the young international perfectly exploited, in the space of three minutes, the spaces left by the absence of Blair Kinghorn, sanctioned with a yellow card for a high tackle on his former Toulouse teammate Arthur Retière.
“LBB” first scored his team’s first try thanks to a nice fake pass (19th) before being at the origin of that of Maxime Lucu (22nd).
Of all the good shots, he could have been involved in a third, at the hour mark, without a save from Romain Ntamack in front of his young teammate Enzo Reybier.
Too messy and well measured by the Gironde defense, Stade Toulouse spent more than an hour without scoring a single point between the try of Kinghorn (7th), served at the end of the line by Thomas Ramos, and that of Peato Mauvaka ( 70th) on a carried ball.
Ramos missed the transformation while Matéo Garcia’s long-distance penalty (75th) was enough for UBB despite the Rouge et Noir’s last stand after the siren.
sdu/zub
Related News :