Is Stade Toulousain too “carbo” to aim for a double against La Rochelle?

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One month after the Champions Cup final at Twickenham, the Toulouse and Rochelais Stadia meet this Friday at the Stade de France, with a view of the Brennus Shield. So yes, this season, Ugo Mola’s men have already beaten three times in three official matches those of the Jono Gibbes – Ronan O’Gara pair: twice in the regular phase of the Top 14 and then at the top of the Coupe d ‘ Europe (22-17).

But a little haunting music envelops this championship final, in the wake of the La Rochelle recital against Racing 92 in the semi-final (19-6): the Maritimes would be favorites this time, against the Haut-Garonnais on the rim. “I really have the impression that the energy is on the side of La Rochelle,” said Mourad Boudjellal.
on RMC Sport.

A shared “desire”

The former president of Toulon also bet on a bigger appetite in a team whose record boils down to two League Cups in 2002 and 2003, against a sated tenor, winner of the last titles awarded in France (2019) and in Europe (2021). Boudjellal still talks a lot, but he talks about gold as the boss of the last club to have achieved the famous double, in 2014.

“On envy, it’s difficult to judge, because everyone has their own goal, judge Marie-Alice Yahé, ex-international who became a consultant on Canal +. The Toulousans are so keen to make the double… And then a final, it’s so special… ”The Rochelais will discover Saint-Denis, while the Toulouse residents almost consider the Lyon enclosure as their secondary home.

“It’s a remake of the European Cup final,” takes up the former number 9, which will intervene this Friday evening on Canal + Sport for a more technical retransmission than that offered at the same time on Canal +, focused on the “big public”. Philosophically, it’s going to be the same as Twickenham. The teams will adapt to the compositions announced but without denying their DNA. The Rochelais will launch a physical challenge with their five or even their extraordinary front eight. They will go and type. Will Stade Toulousain be able to respond for 80 minutes? “

In the final, “we can no longer speak of fatigue”

This is where the pack could hurt in the Rouge et Noir, which appeared not far from the rupture during the final of the European Cup and then last Saturday in the semi-final of the championship, against Union Bordeaux-Bègles (24 -21). Each time, Antoine Dupont and his colleagues made speak their mind combined with a dose of success, by playing a good part of the match at 15 against 14, after the expulsions of Rochelais Botia and Girondin Seuteni.

What if this final meeting of the season, without the opener Romain Ntamack, concussed in the semi-final, was one game too many? “On matches like that, motivation comes alone, swept this Thursday Dupont, the best scrum half in the galaxy, deprived of his usual friend. When we reach this level of a competition, in the final, we can no longer speak of fatigue, even if our bodies are worn out when we reach 12 months of the season. “

“The troops are in rather good condition,” Laurent Thuéry, in charge of Toulouse defense, assured two days earlier. We put the focus on recovery, with only one training session on Wednesday, to arrive with as much freshness as possible. “For a month, it is as much, if not more, a question of massages or cryotherapy as of rugby in the bowels of Ernest-Wallon.

“This is the last week of the season, we will put all our energy”, promises the third row Selevasio Tolofua, anxious like his friends to offer a royal outing to Jerome Kaino (38 years old), double world champion with the All Blacks. Only, opposite, there will be the “monsters” Skelton, Atonio and Alldritt, who have benefited from one more day of recovery since their semi-final last Friday.

One more day of recuperation for La Rochelle

“I don’t think that’s too much of an advantage for us, evades the Rochelais manager Jono Gibbes, who is about to join Clermont. Toulousains are very experienced, maybe they need less days to prepare. It is not a question of physics but of mental and motivation. “

“It will be hard and very tight, prophesies Marie-Alice Yahé. I do not see a team that would take off. “Unless fate, like a red card for example …





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