Lhe French clubs shone on the rugby pitches on Saturday 16 April in the European Cup. While awaiting the result of Racing 92 – Stade Français on Sunday afternoon, Montpellier, La Rochelle and Toulouse have indeed qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition. Clermont, already defeated at home in the first leg, however could not do anything against the English furia of Leicester. There will therefore be four French clubs in the next round.
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The match of the weekend: Toulouse
A forceps victory. Beaten by six points in the first leg on their home turf (26-20), Toulouse managed to reverse the situation by winning 30-23 on Saturday in Belfast against the Irish of Ulster. The victory took shape in the last minutes of the match when, after the expulsion of the Irish pillar O’Toole, the red and blacks found the opening at the 75and minute thanks to a test of their master to play, the indispensable Antoine Dupont. But it was hard. Brave, the Ulster players responded tenaciously throughout the match to the repeated attacks from the Stade Toulousain players.
The defending champion, five-time European champion, will move to the quarter-finals, this time played in a dry match, in May, at another Irish province, Munster, which he had taken out of the competition in the previous round. last year.
The statement
“We are sure he will pass it so we are already giving the instruction to hit a short dismissal… Except that he misses it. Luck was on our side at that time. »
Philippe Saint-André, the manager of Montpellier already saw the worst-case scenario taking shape for his team. But, after an undecided match until the final whistle, Montpellier held on to qualify on Saturday in London, in the lair of Harlequins, for the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The Montpellier residents managed to maintain a small point lead – 20-33 defeat – over their opponents over the two games.
Beaten 40-26 in the first leg, the “Quins” attacked the game head on, scoring a try after 33 seconds of play… Montpellier conceded three more tries in the first period, but replied twice. The second period was summed up in the siege by the Londoners on the Hérault goal line, who ended up cracking in the 76thand minute. But Marcus Smith, opening half of the fifteen of the Rose, brilliant until then, missed the transformation, failure which sealed the fate of the match.
The number: 6
The expression “bête noire” has never been so appropriate. Union Bordeaux-Bègles (UBB) lost its sixth game in a row on Saturday (31-23) against La Rochelle. Reduced to 14 for fifty-five minutes following Ma’ama Vaipulu’s red card for a tackle without the ball on Jonathan Danty, Christophe Urios’ men exploded on their return from the locker room against the Maritimes, who punched their ticket without fear for the quarter-finals. With more than 60 points scored in two matches, the last finalist of the event was far too strong for the Girondins, who have had an eighth loss in their last nine matches.