At the Toulouse Stadium,
From the top of this Champions Cup final, nine coronations gaze down at you. The shock of May 25 at the Tottenham stadium in London is already making any normally constituted rugby fan salivate. Stade Toulousain, holder of the record for titles (five), will come up against its nemesis, the Irish province of Leinster (four).
“All finals are beautiful, but this one is even more so,” admits François Cros, the 3rd row of the Rouge et Noir, elected man of the match on Sunday during the spectacular semi-final won on Sunday (38-26 ) against the English Harlequins.
“It’s a team that has eliminated us quite a few times,” continued the most brilliant of the men in the shadows. The province of Dublin, defeater of other English, those of Northampton, on Saturday (20-17), leads eight to six in the tumultuous history of the face-to-face against Toulouse. Above all, she has won the last four, including three semi-finals at home, each time with clean and flawless scores, in 2019, 2022 and 2023.
“Harder to test”
However, on neutral ground, it will probably be a different story. We wish it to the people of Toulouse, in any case. “It will undoubtedly be a match that will resemble today’s [dimanche], predicts Jean Bouilhou, coach of the Stade forwards. But Leinster will be more present in defense. It will be harder to test. »
Toulouse still planted six against Harlequins, after having stuck five against Racing 92 in the round of 16 (31-7) and nine against Exeter – still an English team – in the quarter (64-26). No less was needed.
At half-time, however, the 32,494 spectators (very precisely and very officially) at the Stadium – plus the entire press gallery, let’s admit it – thought the matter was over. The score of 31-12, including an express double from Antoine Dupont which seemed to have knocked out Marcus Smith and his friends, looked like a visa to London.
And then, two tries after returning from the locker room put the men back in Desigual jerseys in the game, five small points behind Stadistes suddenly very feverish (31-26). “I had the feeling that we wanted to manage more than play,” notes general manager Ugo Mola. And that, frankly, we don’t know how to do. This is a little lesson for the future. »
Thank you “Doudou”!
A saving scratch from Dorian “Doudou” Aldegheri, a tantrum from Jack Walker, the English hooker happy to only take a yellow for an attempted homicide on Dupont, and finally a final try from Juan Cruz Mallia, relaxed ultimately the island of Ramier and a whole city.
Three years later, Stade Toulousain can dream of a new Champions Cup – Top 14 double which would boost a sluggish birth rate, with within nine or ten months a slew of “Little Stadiste on Board” stickers stuck to the backs of cars of “3-1”. But for that it will be necessary to pass on the body of James Lowe, author of the three Leinster tries on Saturday in the semi-final, and of all his solid friends, undoubtedly the only rugby players in the galaxy against whom the Rouge et Noir make a complex.
Imitate La Rochelle
“We can’t wait to be there,” warns François Cros, one of the rare Toulouse residents to stop in the mixed zone, where the journalists present still had the privilege of seeing the singer Jérémy Frérot. “We have three weeks to prepare and fire!” »
At a press conference, Antoine Dupont was just as determined as the 3rd line. “We stopped twice in the semi-finals against them, but they lost two finals,” recalled the best player in the universe, in reference to the failures of Johnny Sexton (now retired) against La Rochelle, in 2022 then 2023.
“I don’t know who is happier or unhappy in history,” continued the captain of Toulouse and the Blues mischievously. Certainly not the EPCR, the organizer of the competition, who could not have dreamed of a better epilogue.