Anthony Jelonch points out a strength and a weakness of Stade Rochelais before the dam
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The two Top 14 play-offs take place this weekend, and hostilities begin on Saturday with a duel between the last two winners of the Champions Cup: Stade Toulousain and Stade Rochelais. This duel will take place at Ernest Wallon.
The Rochelais are not really successful against Toulouse. And even if the Maritimes have had a good season, haloed by this consecration on the European scene, the armada of the Rouge et Noir has not been very successful for them, especially in Wallonia. This is what Anthony Jelonch pointed out in an interview with Sud Ouest, even if the third international line remains very lucid and knows who he will be dealing with on Saturday: a formidable team.
Is it really good in their heads to come to Toulouse? Even though I’ve only been at Stade Toulousain this year, I know they’ve had a lot of defeats here. I believe they haven’t won since 2019… But we know it will be a very big fight and they will try to put out the best match possible. On our side, we know how to comment on going to play them.
One of the big advantages of La Rochelle for Anthony Jelonch, and he is well placed to know this in his capacity as third line, is the package of forwards, of unfailing robustness. But the Toulousain knows that his team also has great weapons on this side. And we can’t really blame him.
They are really very strong in this sector: they have a big scrum, big ball carriers. They hurt the opponent in the scoring zones, they are hyper-pragmatic and manage to score points every time. With them, it’s “the big ones, the big ones, the big ones”, by force they manage to break the lock. The Rochelais are part of the very tough teams. There is a lot of pain, but there is as much for them as for us. It will be a big challenge.