Toulouse (AFP)
Badly in the Top 14, Montpellier created a sensation by winning (29-16) on the ground of an unrecognizable Toulouse leader on Saturday on the occasion of the 20th day of the championship.
Unbeaten at home since October 24 and a setback against Lyon (16-7), the Toulouse lost for the second time in four games.
If they keep their throne, they see their lead over La Rochelle melt away, which they now precede by three points.
It is a serious reminder to order one week before their eighth finals in Europe on the lawn of Munster, a team to which the Toulouse had just compared the MHR before this derby.
Deprived of five French internationals and lessened by several absences in its back lines, the Stade Toulousain fell on a team from Montpellier which confirms its renewal with this third victory in a row.
Despite the last two weeks of preparation cut short by an episode of Covid in its workforce, Montpellier has undoubtedly offered a more serene end to the season thanks to this seventh success of the season, the third away, with now nine points d advance on Pau, the barrage.
Imprecise, clumsy, unruly and in great suffering in the ground game, the Toulouse were already ten points behind at the break after a test at the buzzer of Alexandre Bécognée following a touch lost by the Haut-Garonnais (6 -16).
Under the eyes of Antoine Dupont, Julien Marchand, Dorian Aldegheri, Cyril Baille and Romain Ntamack, who came down from Marcoussis the same morning, the Toulouse residents have momentarily returned thanks to the former international Maxime Médard (11-16, 48th).
A start more than a revolt and the solo test of Jan Serfonten came to confirm the day without a Toulouse team porous in defense and without idea in attack (11-23, 54th).
Despite the test of Mathis Lebel (64th), the seven points abandoned at the foot by Zack Holmes and a chronic inability to compete in the ground fight ended the last hopes of a Toulouse team missed out on its match.
© 2021 AFP