Antoine Dupont’s try against UBB ensured victory for Stade Toulousain, who qualified for the Champions Cup final. – Lionel Bonaventure / AFP
- Winner of the UBB on Saturday (21-9), Stade Toulousain will know this Sunday who from La Rochelle or Leinster will be their opponent in the Champions Cup final on May 22 at Twickenham.
- A match against the Irish province would decide between the two most successful teams in Europe, with four coronations each.
Between forwards facilitated by a capricious sky and games of table tennis rugby, the Stade Toulousain – Union Bordeaux-Bègles on Saturday will not enter the legend of this game. But the Stadistes do not care. The success (21-9) opens wide the doors to a Champions Cup final on May 22 at Twickenham, in front of a priori 10,000 spectators. Almost a multitude in these times of Covid and empty sports grounds.
“What better stadium for a final? ignites Ugo Mola, who had lost the last two European semi-finals, to Leinster (30-12) then to Exeter (28-18). To choose, I would have hesitated between Twickenham and the Cardiff Millennium. It will probably be a somewhat hostile dirt game. There will undoubtedly not be 5,000 Toulouse residents. No, unless there is an implausible relaxation of British law.
Médard, the survivor
The stadist sporting boss released the stats when discussing this meeting awaited by a whole club for eleven years. “This is the seventh final for Stade Toulousain [succès en 1996, 2003, 2005 et 2010 ; défaites en 2004 et 2008], it’s a record, but a record is only good if you materialize it with a fifth star. “Then Mola turns for a moment into George Lucas by announcing:” Star wars are on! »Will it take place against unprecedented Rochelais or against the Irish of Leinster, also eager to sit alone on the roof of the continent with a fifth coronation? Answer this Sunday, at the end of the other half.
But for Maxime Médard, it doesn’t matter. The Yoda of the Stadist back lines, at the top of his 34 years, is the only survivor of the last European final still on the field (Bouilhou and Poitrenaud are now coaches). It was therefore in 2010 and against Biarritz, today in Pro D2. This is to say if water has flowed under the Pont-Neuf since …
“When you win at the very beginning, you say to yourself, it’s great, we’re going to win all the time,” smiles the back stadia, who was playing against the UBB his 350th pro game in his club forever. And then when ten years later, you haven’t won… If we win, I’m going to enjoy it. The Stadist supporters too, even if for the time being they have to be content, like some this Saturday, to come and greet their players before the bus enters Ernest-Wallon.
I dreamed of playing for the @StadeToulousain
Today, I played my 350th pro game, I am lucky to be in an incredible club. Thank you @StadeToulousain pic.twitter.com/U7ECO8W9er– Maxime Médard (@MaxMedard) May 1, 2021
Perhaps the luckiest will be able to return to the Sept-Deniers before the end of a season that could stretch as Toulouse, also leader of the Top 14, has a good face as a candidate for the double.