Author: Richard Dixon
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Lies, damn lies and statistics.
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…
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From the sublime to…something else.
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,…
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A game of two (scrum) halves…
What a weekend of French rugby. If you watched my reel last Friday at the_toulousain_rugby on Instagram, you will know that I was going for victories for Pau, Perpignan and La Rochelle. So let’s get that out of the way right away. Perpignan’s experience, nous, Top 14 savvy, whatever you wish to call it, took…
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What does this picture tell us…
The final round of the Top 14 regular season was played last night, with seven fixtures kicking off at 9.05 pm. Endless permutations were possible, but after a night of see-sawing, it finished like this (the right hand side of the graphic). The European champions of this season, since last Saturday’s overrunning of Leinster in…
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Olympic gold medallist Andy Timo shows the value of playing Sevens
Timo’s display on Saturday for La Rochelle at Montauban was eye-catching to say the least. It was quickly evident that the man has a fine appreciation of space, and how to use it. This is a player for whom the mantra ‘play where it is easy to play’ was written. La Rochelle had come with…
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Overcoached Irish losing the ability to read the game.
Last Saturday’s Champions Cup final was a stark contrast between the now oh-so-familiar ‘phase play’ of Irish teams, in particular Leinster and the national team, and a style of rugby which is often lazily referred to as ‘French flair’, but is actually far more about a way of coaching the game. Let’s not forget that…