A week after their defeat in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup at Leinster (22-41), the Toulousains recovered their heads upright by chaining an eighteenth consecutive match without defeat at home this Sunday against at UBB (31-17).
The teammates of Julien Marchand, who had lost their place on the throne at the expense of La Rochelle, winner the day before in Toulon (23-8) took the opportunity to regain control of the championship.
They will now be able to rotate their squad during the last two days of the regular season to arrive as fresh as possible in San Sebastián, the theater of the semi-finals, on June 9 and 10.
The situation is much less encouraging for Union Bordeaux-Bègles, beaten for the fourth time in its last five trips but which certainly retains its sixth place, with a point ahead of Toulon, where the Girondins will go during the last day, May 28.
In a sold-out Stadium, Stade Toulousain had decided to relaunch the defeats of Leinster by aligning its standard team against a formation which had for its part announced “want to score points”.
L’indispensable Dupont
The Red and Black owners have also responded with the indispensable Antoine Dupont as guide. Dynamite on the second try scored by Alexandre Roumat (31) then decisive passer on the third concretized by Jack Willis (40), the international scrum half allowed his team to lead at the break (21-17) against a Bordeaux team which for a long time posed real worries to Toulouse residents during a first act as intense as it was spectacular.
The second period was much less flamboyant until the inevitable Dupont woke everyone up on a fantastic ride of around thirty meters completed under the posts (28-17, 60).
Absent for two months due to an ankle injury, Bordeaux international fly-half Matthieu Jalibert had just returned to competition a few seconds earlier. Visibly hit on one finger, he was replaced twelve minutes later. Reduced to fourteen after the yellow card of Louis Bielle-Biarrey (64), the Girondins then definitively surrendered.
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