There are the points that were not scored: a conversion by Thomas Ramos after Romain Ntamack's magnificent try which put Stade Toulousain back into play at the heart of a period of great suffering, and a penalty missed by the even Ramos in the 73rd minute, distant but in front of the posts, who too could have replaced the defending champions in front.

There were also too many small errors and dross throughout the match, like this ball lost by Ntamack who gave Castres a good try-out (6th minute), finally refused for a forward.

The Toulouse opener also missed the touch on a penalty (18th), like Ramos then in the second period, and did not necessarily make the right choice on a drop which spun next to the Castres posts (13th).

But above all there are the points that Toulouse gave to Castres when the French champions found themselves outnumbered, twice.

In the 22nd minute, the second line of Stade Rory Arnold was thus released for 10 minutes for a shoulder tackle against the face of Castres winger Filippo Nakosi.

Furious, Toulouse assistant coach Jean Bouilhou then acknowledged that the sanction was "deserved".

Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont passes the ball past Castres opener Benjamin Urdapilleta (g) in the Top 14 semi-final on June 17, 2022 in Nice NICOLAS TUCAT AFP

But above all it weighed heavily on the scoreboard because five minutes later, Castres opener Benjamin Urdapilleta, then named man of the match, scored a penalty which left his team within reach of Toulouse (10-6) despite an early game complicated.

"Too unruly"

Throughout the match, the Argentinian with the superb left foot succeeded in almost everything.

In the 21st minute, he had scored a superb penalty with a tense kick of more than 45m, eccentric to the right.

He also shone with a brilliant pass at the foot, still left, for Geoffrey Palis who thought he had scored, but had not completely flattened (38th).

The five points of the test were all the same replaced by three penalty points, which was already six conceded by Toulouse in a situation of numerical inferiority.

Argentinian opener from Castres Benjamin Urdapilleta passes a transformation against Toulouse in the semi-final of the Top 14, June 17, 2022 in Nice CHRISTOPHE SIMON AFP

It wasn't over.

Urdapilleta again transformed Santiago Arata's try at the start of the second period, again scored when Toulouse played at 14 after the yellow card received by hooker Julien Marchand, guilty of hitting the hand of a Castres just in front his line.

In the end, it was therefore 13 points that the Castres scored on the numerical superiority, a total far too heavy for Toulouse, which on Friday, as throughout the season, had too many ups and downs.

"We made mistakes, we were too undisciplined. And we knew that they would be present," admitted Jelonch on Canal +.

"There is a lot of indiscipline in this match and the two yellow cards did a lot of harm. They were realistic, with Urdapilleta and his great footwork, he was a very great player in this match. They deserve their victory and their final," added the Stade flanker.

© 2022 AFP