Toulouse, the brand of champions
If there is one lesson to be learned from this barrage, it is that champions remain champions. The Toulouse are still in the Top 14, at least until Friday evening and their semi-final against Castres.
All that to say that, despite a rocky season during which they went through all the states and ended up giving up their European title, the Red and Blacks remain outstanding competitors. This was still true when they received La Rochelle, recent winners of the Champions Cup, perhaps the only team capable of challenging their supremacy over French rugby…”Ugo used it to motivate ussmiled Peato Mauvaka. We know what we want and what we are worth.”
This was seen from the start on Saturday evening. “When you face this kind of team, which arrives with full confidence after its coronation, you want to show that you are at home.claims Thomas Ramos. Also that, in front, you will respond to this big pack. We had a good first half, which allowed us to get ahead.” Ugo Mola likes: “We beat a great team. After a European title, you are carried by an almost unconscious enthusiasm. My fear was to compete on energy. Rugby is just that and the ability to put yourself in front. Toulouse is put in front of La Rochelle.” Until knocking out the formation in the form of the moment and playing the penalties quickly in hand, to stifle it. “It was not planned and we did not talk about it at all beforeresume Ramos. It was by feeling, at the time. We wanted to move them to find spaces. There is one that I hit and Antoine scores behind. On a lucky one. In reality, Toulouse even achieved its best half at the best of times. The mark of the greats. On the sidelines of European exploits in Ulster and Munster (before falling in half at Leinster), the Stadistes had insisted on the impossibility of leaving such a competition so soon, moreover as defending champion. It’s the same there. “We talked about it, we didn’t want to be on vacation after a quarter-final at homenotes Ramos. We said during the week that it was not our turn. We were hungry. They had already had a successful season and we lost the European title. We don’t want to lose the second. We can look each other straight in the eye, we had a great game.”
Stratospheric Dupont
On Saturday, the Toulouse Stadium released its gala habits, countering the Rochelais on their strengths. And relying on the genius of its strong men. The best example ? Antoine Dupont obviously. Perhaps a little less dashing in recent weeks (and again…), he was stratospheric, especially on the first two tests. “He is someone who is able to tip his team on the right side, alonecomments Ronan O’Gara, the opposing manager. There is no one close to his level on a pitch.” Mola, his own manager, on the same wavelength: “Like the best player in the world that he is, he is always lacking when he is at 50 or 60%. But compared to whom? Because at 60%, Antoine Dupont remains the best scrum-half in the Top 14 and Europe. There, I may not have had 100% from Antoine, but still not far in the first half (smile). Then the technician delivers this confession: “He went to 10, found himself in the back position. I have a dream with him, it is to make him wear all the possible numbers behind at the Toulouse Stadium. We will try to scratch other positions quietly .” In any case, when the captain of the Blues evolves at such a level, Toulouse is obviously not the same team.
Ramos: ‘We’re out of luck’
Here, Dupont and his teammates will still be there to try to afford a third Brennus in a row, which would place this band a little more in the legend of the club. “I remain convinced that I am blessed by the Gods to be the coach of this generation.admits Ugo Mola. Some knew after winning or had plans. Me, I don’t have one. I’m just lucky enough to train amazing guys. […] Even at Friday’s set-up, they did stuff to me…I come home and think to myself that they’re disconcerting. They don’t care about anything. They are comfortable, they go fast, they are strong. They just need to put things in order.” When this is so, this formation is an infernal machine. Even if the manager also puts in context: “My players are amazing because they are mostly twenty-five or twenty-six years old… The two or three weeks of recovery, no offense to Biarritz, when you have a group that is that age, that’s gold.”
A saving regeneration, after several suffocating months, between canceled matches, reports, duplicates and the use of countless internationals, before going to snatch qualification. But, for the past eight days, the counters have been reset to zero. And the staff noticed, in the middle of last week, that the physical data of the troops had never been so high… “We are on the home stretch and everyone wants to perform, to playsays Ramos. it’s a bit of a drag in training. Even in muscle. It’s good to work like that. We’ve been doing it for several years when we enter the final stages and it’s been pretty good for us so far.” Two more games to afford the Holy Grail again. “We are coming out of three quite extraordinary seasons and here we are in the last fourblew Mola. But so far, it does not give us anything other than the right to play a semi-final against the first in the championship. From now on, we will have to face the Castres who will be fresh as roaches.” And to promote: “Energy, on the aura.” Knowing that they also have the talent, the experience, the audacity and now the confidence.