Toulouse (AFP)

Hanging for 50 minutes, often clumsy in its transmissions, Toulouse still finished 2020 in style by offering itself an enhanced success (45-23) against Bordeaux-Bègles on Sunday, retaining 2nd place in the Top 14.

With this 4th success in a row in the league, Stade Toulousain remains second to Stade Rochelais, which is ahead of it by one.

The offensive bonus snatched from the siren on a 5th try signed Maxime Médard, top scorer in activity in the Top 14 (85), allows him to maintain his lead over Racing (3rd).

UBB, beaten by the latter before the European cut, suffered a second loss in a row and remained 8th with a match to catch up against Clermont.

In this poster between the last champion and the best team of last season, definitively interrupted by the pandemic, Toulouse has always been in the lead but took 50 minutes, until Antoine Dupont's try, to break away .

The lone rider who was emerging after a quarter of an hour of play (13-0) followed a nice Bordeaux reaction in the middle of the first period (19-17).

- Ntamack injured in the face -

The Toulousains, who had taken the controls on a first test signed Yoann Huget (7th), put into orbit by the advances of Romain Ntamack and Dupont, saw the Bordelais return to two points after a beautiful three-quarter movement concluded by Yoram Moefana (19th), then a test by Thierry Païva initiated by Matthieu Jalibert (30th).

But a final push before the break, with a second try scored by Selevasio Tolofua (40th), allowed them to maintain a lead (26-17) that Thomas Ramos had made fruitful by four penalties (2nd, 14th, 18th, 26th).

By multiplying the approximate passes, helped by the arrival of the great cold, like that of Dupont for Matthis Lebel (33rd), of Pita Ahki for the same Lebel (38th) or of Ramos for Dorian Aldegheri (42nd), Toulouse put some time before breaking free.

And the UBB remained in contact with the boot of Jalibert (45th, 47th, 26-23), until Dupont gratified her with his "special", a breakthrough in the axis and a fuss over Romain Buros for spin under the poles (50e, 33-23).

Not destabilized by the exit of Ntamack (67th), hit in the face by Rémi Lamerat, the Ugo Mola team took shelter with a 4th test signed Lebel (69th), after a good job forwards and a school slip from the rear, before snatching a long-unexpected bonus.

Even without sparkling, Toulouse knows how to do it.

© 2020 AFP