After Europe, Stade Toulouse planted its red and black flag in the Top 14, once again dominating La Rochelle in the final on Friday 25 June (18-8), to sign the third double in the European Championship-Cup of the history of French rugby.
Carried by the opener Thomas Ramos, author of fifteen points, Toulouse retains the Shield of Brennus, the 21e of its history at the end of a closed final, where the only attempt was scored four minutes from the end by the Charentais pillar Dany Priso.
Once again, it was the Stade Rochelais that suffered the thunderbolt of Toulouse: beaten in the final of the European Cup, barely more than a month ago, the Maritimes have still not found the key to the Haut-Garonnais lock. They fell for the fifth time this season against the same opponent, who had beaten them 38-0 in the preseason, then 39-23 and 14-11 in the league and 22-17 in the Champions Cup final.
A logical success
For Toulouse, it is a new double, the second after that of 1996, when the teammates of President Didier Lacroix, then “Simple” third row, had crunched Brive (20-13) then Cardiff (21-18). Toulon had also achieved such a feat during the 2013-2014 season, after its successes in front of Castres (18-10) and Saracens (23-6).
Toulouse stadium “Preserve” therefore his title, won in 2019 in front of Clermont and which had not been awarded the following season, stopped due to the pandemic due to Covid-19.
A logical success in view of this one-sided final, where the Rochelais had already lost twelve balls in the first 40 minutes. But also in view of the season performed by the champion.
First of the regular season for the fourteenth time, Stade Toulouse (81 pts) dominated the championship, winning seventeen games with one of the best attacks in the Top 14 (second in number of points scored, 767, first in number of trials, 92).
Two drops this season
Better still, they waited for the final to register their first and second drops of the season, including the last, sublime, through the world champion Cheslin Kolbe (40e), knocked out Jono Gibbes’ men.
The first of the career of the South African wisp which thus puts an end to a series of twelve games without scoring. A drop in the championship final, this had not happened since Toulonnais Jonny Wilkinson in 2014 against Castres.
To see two successful drops in the final, we have to go back to the 2004-2005 edition and those made by Brian Liebenberg for the French Stadium and Julien Peyrelongue for Biarritz. Two drops for one team, it was at the beginning of the century, when Yann Delaigue signed a hat-trick in Toulouse’s 34-22 victory… ahead of AS Montferrand.
This new consecration for the Rouge et Noir is the epilogue of an endless season, which began on May 25, 2020 with a series of PCR tests. Fifty-eight weeks, thirty-seven games, eleven operations and a dozen fractures later, Toulouse won the two titles that presented themselves. As usual.
