JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN
“We didn’t just lose the arm wrestle – we had our wrists broken under the table,” Bordeaux boss Yannick Bru admitted, graphically, after watching his side fall to a record 59-3 Top 14 final defeat at the hands of an irrepressible Toulouse in Marseille on Friday evening.
“It’s hard to compete with a Formula 1 team like that after coming through the play-offs… If you want to beat Toulouse in the final, you have to qualify directly for the semi-finals,” he went on.
Positives are hard to find after a one-sided defeat like that – but he tried. “It is better to be outclassed in the final than to lose 29-28 on a late refereeing decision.
“Slaps like this are a reminder of humility and reflection. I hope that next season, we will be able to rise to this standard. There will be time to debrief. But that time has not arrived. Right now, we all need some rest.”
Bru had gambled on the fitness of star fly-half Matthieu Jalibert – who had missed the semi-final victory over Stade Francais with a thigh injury – and tighthead prop ‘Big’ Ben Tameifuna, who picked up a shoulder injury in that match. Neither one of them had matches to remember.
But Bru had no regrets about selecting players despite doubts over their fitness. “You can’t beat Toulouse by playing small,” he said.
“We had to take a gamble, and to do that we needed our best players on the pitch. On the other side, there were 23 internationals. With 23 other Bordeaux players, the result would have been identical.”
He has a point, but Jalibert admitted that he was struggling after the opening 15 minutes. “It was complicated,” he said. “The season was as good as over for me. But then Mateo Garcia felt some discomfort before the final …[and] I was getting better and better.
“We decided to take the risk. Afterwards, I knew it was going to be physically complicated. After 15 minutes, I felt some discomfort. It was hard to play my game, to get up to speed.”
Antoine Dupont had scored his first try – a pretty typical scrum-half ’s angled dart from close-range after his forwards had done the damage to Bordeaux’s defensive set-up – by the time Jalibert was feeling the injury pinch in his thigh.
Until then, the final had run as expected. The opening may have been described by some as cagey, but the truth is Toulouse had dug in some painful jabs before Dupont got through, while Bordeaux’s attempts at attack were bouncing harmlessly off their defensive block.
Meanwhile, Jack Willis and Peato Mauvaka were busily making nuisances of themselves at the breakdown and in the loose.
And Mauvaka – a hybrid player who’s quietly redefining the role of hooker rather more than any more trumpeted player in that position – was lurking on the edge to score Toulouse’s second after more direct one-pass rugby phased them ever closer to the Bordeaux line.
Minutes later, Toulouse’s third, Dupont’s second and – despite Ange Capuozzo’s late 100m score with the clock in the red – the try of the match, a season highlight-reeler of a score. It went like this: Thibaut Flament off the top of a lineout just inside Bordeaux’s half to Rodrigo Neti, who spun and fed Mauvaka. He raced into the hole, flipped an inside pass to Juan Cruz Mallia, who maintained the forward momentum, offloading out of the tackle to Dupont; who hit the line at full chat, chipped over the top of a flat-footed Maxime Lucu, gathered and scored by the posts, despite the attentions of Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
“Bordeaux left in a spin as they fall to a record 59-3 Top 14 final defeat in Marseille on Friday”
Lucu’s ankle denied Mauvaka a second on the stroke of halftime. But the game was over as a contest. Bordeaux hadn’t thrown a punch, had barely looked able to throw a punch, despite the known try-scoring credentials of their backline.
Toulouse coach Ugo Mola, like Bru, suggested that Bordeaux were done by the time they reached Marseille. “I’m delighted with the result,” he said, “but we perhaps benefited from a weakened Bordeaux team, who drained a lot of energy in the play-off and in the semi-final.”
He, too, expects Bordeaux to hit right back. “Take pleasure when you win, by a point or a lot – let’s just say that the last 20 minutes were less stressful. But I’m not going to dwell on the size of the scoreline, which is out of all proportion given our opponent, who will be part of the worrying landscape of the next few years.”
A third quarter lull prepared no-one for the six-try blitz to come. Thomas Ramos raced on to Romain Ntamack’s kick ahead in the 64th minute. Julien Marchand battered over four minutes’ later. Blair Kinghorn raced in three minutes after that. Ramos scored his second with five minutes left on the clock – and there was still time for David Ainu’u to take the score beyond 50 before the 80 was up.
But that, still, wasn’t the end. With the clock deep in the red, Bordeaux finally got the ball close to the Toulouse line – and had a four on one. It was never going to be anything more than a consolation. But at least it was something.
And then… it wasn’t. Toulouse stole the ball. They were 54-3 up – everyone would have understood if someone blootered the ball into row z. What followed, from behind their own lines, was a 100m exclamation point. Capuozzo did most of the running, taking the ball wide open spaces in his own half and racing it home. But this was the Toulouse of Pierre Villepreux in full flight.
Blow-out wins aren’t always enjoyable to watch. This was. This was the best side in France, the best side in Europe, laying down a marker. We are here, they said, loud and clear, on Friday in Marseille. Catch us if you can.
Now, the 2024 French rugby season is over, bar the senior men’s July tour of Argentina and Uruguay, the World Rugby U20 Championship in South Africa, which kicked off yesterday, and the Women’s Series in Parma, which runs from July 4 to 14.
Domestically, Toulouse hold the Top 14 and Champions Cup titles. Bordeaux won the Elite 1 women’s league title. Vannes were promoted to the Top 14 as ProD2 champions; Nice joined the ProD2, after winning the Nationale 1.
As of today, there are 60 days until the start of the 2024-25 ProD2 season, while the new Top 14 campaign kicks off in 68 days.
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