It has been said for a while now that the current group of players at Stade Toulousain is special. They demonstrated that again on Saturday night with a dominant defensive display in the first half, which meant that for all the possession and territory which Montpellier had, there wasn’t enough go forward, and there was often a lot of ‘go backwards’, thanks to some truly committed defending. Montpellier have spent the season battering people, in open play and at set piece, but there was to be no repetition on Saturday.
Toulouse conceded one scrum penalty in the whole game, and Rodrigue Neti and Joel Merkler, two somewhat unheralded prop forwards, departed after 50 minutes having got the job done. Meantime, the man they were propping, one Peato Mauvaka, had helped himself to a brace of tries. The first will live long in the memory…
The entire front row was replaced at 50 minutes, and the new trio of Ainu’u, Marchand and Aldegheri promptly shunted Montpellier backwards at the first opportunity. Toulouse also managed to steal three of Montpellier’s lineouts, including one whilst defending their own line (Josh Brennan), whilst only conceding two of their own. And we haven’t started on Jack Willis and his turnover count…
But we are in danger here of reducing this splendid game, and it was every bit as good watching it for a second time yesterday, to a cold pile of statistics. It was, as rugby should be, about heart, and guts, and hunger. And some fabulous personal stories. Romain N’tamack, at 27, winning his 6th Brennus, to equal his famous father Emile. His contribution to that first half defensive display was heroic. Teddy Thomas, signed from La Rochelle last summer to the surprise of many, has revitalised his career with Toulouse. His scoring pass to Antoine Dupont, an improvised two handed chest pass taken from basketball, demonstrates calm and coolness on the ball which has been well practised.
Antoine Dupont himself coming back to prove his doubters wrong. When you have set the bar so high, how sad to see people so eager for his downfall. Probably worth asking his teammates what they think of him. Alexandre Roumat who, apart from his defensive efforts, including a fabulous late cover tackle on Lenni Nouchi, time and again made metres after a pick up at the base of the scrum. Heart, guts, hunger.
To look at the bare statistics, be it possession, or territory, or metres made, or all the other numbers which the viewing public are encouraged to obsess about, there could only have been one winner on Saturday. Thankfully, there is still more to winning rugby matches than winning the data battle (take note Mr. Borthwick). There is no data for ‘creating space’ or for ‘using space’, although ‘tries scored’ is a handy enough indicator.
We know that Toulouse will be back for more. Ugo Mola and his relentless staff will see to that. Their role is to keep pushing these players, and they deserve huge credit for the work they have done, so far. Where do Montpellier go from here? They have had a season many clubs would rightly be delighted with, including victory in the EPCR Challenge Cup. Maybe the next phase of the plan might involve starting this guy more often…