Castres offers itself to Toulouse

“A great team never loses twice,” Gérard Houiller once said. A maxim which, at present, does not apply to Stade Toulousain. Beaten on his lawn by Bordeaux-Bègles last weekend, the reigning French champion lost once again this Saturday in Castres in a derby which, for five years, has not smiled on him on the lawn of Stade Pierre -Fabre. A summit meeting that the French champions launched on a high foundation. Indeed, on a scrum exit signed Théo Ntamack, Paul Graou was able to change the direction of the game to shift Thomas Ramos, lined up at the opening for this meeting. The French international did not ask for his rest to take advantage of the space and flatten the first try of the match, transformed by him. The scorers then responded with the gap maintained at seven lengths at the end of the first quarter of an hour. But that was without counting on the mischief of a certain Santiago Arata. On a sideline near the Toulouse line, the Castres started a patient ball. The CO scrum half then extracted the ball to go to the short side and flatten it in the face of the opposing defenders.

Toulouse in front at the break

Louis Le Brun then missed the transformation, leaving Castres two lengths behind. The two scorers then took center stage with a penalty each in the space of five minutes.
But it was Toulouse who took the lead at the break. An advantage which was reinforced by the pack of the Haute-Garonne club seven minutes from the siren. On a touch five meters away found by Thomas Ramos and perfectly managed, the ball pierced the Tarn defensive curtain to allow Peato Mauvaka to flatten a converted try which offered a margin of nine units to the reigning French champions at the time. to find the locker rooms. Except that the Toulouse counter then remained stuck at 23 points for a long time. The Castres comeback started nine minutes after the restart through Will Collier. The CO pillar improved a penalty played manually by using his power to flatten the Tarn team’s second try. Ugo Mola then began to open his bench to bring fresh blood to his team. But the dynamic was clearly Castres with Louis Le Brun who confirmed it after a quarter of an hour in the second period.

Castres held on until the end

The Tarn opener was perfectly shifted by Abraham Papali’i to deceive the Toulouse defense and allow his team to go ahead in the score for the first time in the match. Shortly after the hour mark, the Castres number 10 added three points on a penalty after a ground fault from Toulouse, who were then taken out of the defensive bonus window. At the start of the last quarter of an hour, Dorian Aldegheri did not improve the prospects for the reigning French champions, paying for the increase in fouls with a yellow card. The final minutes saw Toulouse push to at least secure a defensive bonus point. It became tangible when Thomas Ramos passed a penalty to bring his team to five points with two minutes still to play. On the last action, the Castres defense fell back but without cracking and a final forward from Paul Costes put an end to the suspense. Castres wins this derby (28-23) and signs a third victory in five days. A result which allows them to move ahead of their rival in the ranking, three points behind the leading duo composed of Bordeaux-Bègles and La Rochelle.