Two very different Top 14 semi-finals this weekend. Friday night saw a Toulousain masterclass against a Racing team who were simply unable to get into the game. Maybe after last week’s long trip to Pau, another big journey into the deep south of the country to Montpellier was too much. In contrast, Toulouse looked fresh, sharp and ready to silence the doubters. Teams which begin their play-off journey with an away barrages match don’t have a big history of success, and Racing duly joined that group. Toulouse were irresistible, from the 7th minute…
…to the 75th…
…and some of the stuff in between wasn’t bad either.
As I had suggested in my predictions reel on Friday, Monsieur Mola had done a brilliant job of putting everyone’s head in exactly the right place.Singling out individuals would be invidious (a phrase normally followed by a long list of individuals being singled out) in what was a terrific team performance. ‘Fais jouer les autres’ roughly translates as ‘use your teammates’, and we saw exactly that on Friday. If we’re all playing to the same principles, we’ve got a chance.
Last night’s affair was very different. When Fijian winger Dakuwaqa scored the third try of the match to put Stade Francais ahead 15-10 after just 16 minutes, there was hope…
…but this rapidly evaporated. SF didn’t score another point, and after half an hour, they had already lost five lineouts on their own throw. Even this purist knows that without primary possession, the game becomes tricky. Their scrum was also under increasing pressure, and Montpellier’s ability to replace one gargantuan front row of three with another after 50, 50 and 58 minutes respectively laid down a marker. When you replace a 126 kg tight head with a 124 kg tight head, who is also 6’ 4’’ tall, you can probably read the opposition game plan.
Thus the game descended into a quite frankly boring second half, apart from one notable break from each team, neither of which produced a try. The endless search for scrum penalties paid off (after 73 minutes the penalty count was 12-4 in favour of Montpellier) as Argentinian fly-half Miotti kicked five, and his replacement Leo Coly one. Overall, Montpellier had pretty much two-thirds of possession and territory, but were happy to suffocate Stade Francais and kick the resulting penalties. Being outscored by two tries to one will not even have registered with them.
So the final will be between the top two from the regular season table. Winning ‘barragistes’ from last week (the two Paris based teams) faced two sides who benefitted from a week off, and it proved a step too far. So what’s the history of ‘barragiste’ success look like? The Top 14 was last reorganised for season 2009-10, with the implementation of the ‘barrages d’access’ to the semi finals. So 3rd plays 6th (this season that’s SF versus La Rochelle) for the right to play 2nd (Montpellier) in one of the semis. And 4th plays 5th (Pau v Racing) to get to play 1st in the regular season in the other semi (Toulouse). If you finish 3rd or 4th in the regular season, you have home advantage in your barrages match, for the right to a semi-final on neutral ground. Still with me?
Ten of the fifteen titles since this reorganisation (one missed for Covid) have gone to the team which finished first or second in the regular season, so that statistic will be extended this year to eleven out of sixteen, regardless of who wins. But this will be only the fifth time that the regular season top two contest the final, meaning that barragistes can, and do make it to the final. But to win, you really need to be a home barragiste (finish 3rd or 4th). Only once, in 2017-18, has an away barragiste (Castres, led by Christophe Urios, now of Clermont fame) won the whole thing outright. And they had finished 6th in the regular season! A gruelling end to a long, tough season.
Who wins next Saturday at the Stade de France? I’ll let you know…