The Castres, tombors of the title holders (24-18), will face on June 24 the winner of Montpellier-Bordeaux-Bègles disputed on Saturday evening.
Le Monde with AFP
Until then, the logic is respected: Castres, first of the regular phase, qualified for the final of the Top 14 thanks to its victory at the end of the suspense, Friday June 17, in Toulouse (24-18) , holding the title, in the semi-finals in Nice, in a derby atmosphere.
He did not escape the Tarnais only on the road to their last coronation in 2018, they had already eliminated the Toulouse stadium, reigning champion. The CO will face in the final-the eighth in its history-Montpellier or Bordeaux-Bègles opposite on Saturday, at the Allianz Riviera also.
Friday evening, in the usual lair of OGC Nice footballers, rather fairly shared between red and blue supporters, the Toulousains, as during their victorious dam against La Rochelle (33-28) last week, had Yet printed a big rhythm of entry. A start to the floor rewarded with a test – possibly tainted with an in front – from the 2 e minute by the international winger Matthis Lebel, who rushed into an interval at the Interior to flatten between the posts, facing the Kop Castres, particularly noisy.
Castres to courage
Dominators in conquest, the men of Ugo Mola have gradually lowered the tone and left, by their indiscipline, the Castres return to the match thanks to the precise foot of the Argentinian opener Benjamin Urdapilleta. Enthed by the two yellow cards inflicted on the Australian giant Rory Arnold and the hooker Julien Marchand, Castres, after letting the storm pass, could even have tied up at the break without a test refused by the video to the winger Geoffrey Palis (9-10).
Under a more bearable temperature than that raging in Occitanie, the Tarn club, much less requested than its opponent for several months, finally took the lead as soon as the locker room returns. The Uruguayan melee half, Santiago Arata, passed into the castraise hierarchy of the post in front of the local icon Rory Kockott, went to flatten in a ruck the first try of his team (16-10, 43
).
On an individual feat of the opener of the Blues Romain Ntamack, whose acceleration has mystified the opposing defense, Toulouse seemed to resume a time the thread of his match by returning to a point of his opponent, then taking even The advantage over a penalty by Thomas Ramos (18-16). But the CO, still as combative, was snatched to force the decision in the last ten minutes and validate for good its ticket for the Stade de France thanks to a penalty from Urdapilleta and a new test, this time registered by the rear Julien Dumora. And then dream of a sixth shield of Brennus.
“The job is not finished, recalls the three-quarter Castrais Thomas Combezou. The purpose is next week [in the final]. This semi-final was like our season, A harsh, tight match. We did not give up, we knew that we had to work a lot and that at one point or another, it could yield in our favor. “
white season for Toulouse
On the Toulouse side, it’s disappointment. The beautiful machine has known too many failures, like a sawtooth season which had started well before experiencing a big vacuum in the heart of winter in the absence of its many French internationals, selected by the Six Nations Tournament.
Pique in his pride by his heavy defeat in the semi-finals of the European Cup against the Irish of Leinster (40-17) who dispossed them of their title, the biggest record of French rugby seemed to have found his best Level last week in a dam against La Rochelle. He finally fell back into his flaws against Castres.
“Our indiscipline at the start of the game costs us a little too expensive and allows Castres to return to the match,” analyzes the Toulouse coach, Ugo Mola. “We may have missed a few ingredients for a while but we are not very far either,” he concludes.
In view of the quality of the workforce, the white season hurts at the Toulouse stadium. But the recruitment made for next season (Pierre-Louis Barassi, Melvyn Jaminet, Arthur Retière, Ange Capuozzo …) could allow him to bounce back.