Less Red and Black were way too strong! At the end of a one-sided Top 14 final against Bordeaux-Bègles (59-3), Friday in Marseille, Stade Toulouse, already crowned in the Champions Cup last month, won its 23rd Brennus Shield. This is the third European Cup-championship double in its history after 1996 and 2021.
Published on: 06/28/2024 – 11:05 p.m. Modified on: 06/28/2024 – 11:16 p.m.
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Stade Toulousain humiliated Bordeaux-Bègles (59-3) in the Top 14 final on Friday June 28 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille to clinch the 23rd French championship title in its history, the second in a row and a third European Cup/Championship double.
Nine tries to zero and the biggest gap in the history of the finals. Toulouse did more than recite its lesson, racing the game from the first minutes to always lead the score and above all take the game into their own hands.
They proved that they were more than a big club, with a unique record, a golden generation, made to win and set to last.
Faced with clinical, pragmatic Toulouse, much more precise, fast and disciplined than their opponents, Maxime Lucu’s teammates defended with rage, tried, tried to play their rugby, the Rouge et Noir were far too strong.
On the bench, as the minutes ticked away towards the final whistle, the Bordelo-Bèglais seemed stunned, unable to believe it, as if struck by lightning.
𝟮𝟯𝗫 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 🤩
Historic, our Stadistes add a 23rd Brennus Shield to their list of achievements ❤️🖤 pic.twitter.com/ax61nhljRI
— Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) June 28, 2024
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Their coach Yannick Bru had however warned on Thursday that a final must be played, not consider yourself already happy to participate in it and above all “not be spectators”.
Yet that is what the UBB players seemed to be: feverish, waiting, too frozen by the stakes, this terrible and exciting stakes of winning a first Brennus Shield.
Their three-quarters, so brilliant during the season, were deprived of the ball, like Damian Penaud. The other UBB winger, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, was taken off prematurely, as a symbol of the impotence of the “Patrouille de France”.
Paris losers
The “bets” attempted by the Bordeaux-Bègles management, that is to say starting the pillar Ben Tameifuna and especially the fly-half Mathieu Jalibert, barely back from injuries but ultimately probably too weak, did not turn out to be winners.
Jalibert, replaced in the 54th minute with his head down and under a few whistles, was thus at the origin of Toulouse’s first try, one of his first kicks having fallen directly into the arms of Thomas Ramos.
Restarting the game, the Toulouse full-back set the red and black machine in motion, until Antoine Dupont’s strong try in the 7th minute, his first in the Top 14 final.
The other gamble of the UBB staff, to play Tameifuna when he had been announced as out at the beginning of the week, was not the most successful either.
The Tongan pillar did not seem at his best and accumulated errors in the scrum, penalizing his teammates, appearing to suffer several times from the shoulder until his exit in the 47th minute, to the applause of the entire Vélodrome.
Dupont then did a Dupont: he who had already been accelerating the pace, varying his play, since the start of the match, allowed himself the luxury of a double in a personal exploit.
Following a maul, on a ball recovered by Mauvaka, the captain of the French the Blues Maxime Lucu, before flattening (22-3, 23rd).
In the second half, the Toulousains, in full control, were initially content to manage, bringing on all their substitutes so that the party was complete.
Before the match turned into a nightmare for UBB, with a succession of tries starting in the 64th minute.
More than a recitation, the match turned into humiliation. The Vélodrome could sing and the Toulouse party could begin.
With AFP
