Stade Toulouse largely won against Racing 92 (32-12) and consolidated its second place.
TOPS
Antoine Dupont improved everything
It didn’t change everything, but it brought fluidity to Toulouse’s movements. Entering in place of Graou just after half-time, the “Minister of the Interior” justified his nickname to widen the gap, three minutes after his appearance. He is also at the origin of the Chocobares and Castro-Ferreira tests. We cannot say that Stade Toulousain is entirely dependent on its star scrum-half, but there is no doubt that he is the man behind his team’s great success.
The Toulouse defense held up the shock
This bonus point taken away by Arundell in the final minutes tarnished Toulouse’s defensive performance a little, but this match was punctuated by two saves in the in-goal. One by Flament in the first period and the other by the Ramos/Kinghorn duo. The full-back and his one-day winger were able to cut off Wade’s incursion at the very start of the second half. An action which could have changed the scenario of the second half.
FLOPS
The growing indiscipline of Racing
Even if the first penalty conceded at the very start of the match had set the tone, the Racing players were well back in the match. But the Ile-de-France residents put the pressure back on themselves. Toulouse’s first try comes at the end of the first half and follows a period of control of the players by Stuart Lancaster. But a series of missed scrums put Toulouse back in the right direction to take the advantage.
Toulouse’s ineffectiveness in the first period
An offensive bonus lost at the end of the match makes Thomas Ramos and Ugo Mola moan. And if it was Arundell who put Toulouse back two points behind Stade Français, leader with a game in hand, this is not the only reason for the loss of the bonus. In the first half, Ugo Mola’s men clearly lacked efficiency to take a greater advantage at the break (13-6). Even if they corrected the situation in the second half, he missed a single try to put even more pressure on the Parisians, traveling to Clermont this evening.
