A week after their defeat in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup on the field of Leinster (22-41), the Toulouse have recovered there head to the place by chaining an eighteenth consecutive game without defeat at home.

The teammates of Julien Marchand, who had lost their place on the throne at the expense of La Rochelle, winner the day before in Toulon (23-8) take the opportunity to regain control of the championship.

They will now be able to rotate their squad during the last two days of the regular season to arrive as fresh as possible in San Sebastian, the scene of the semi-finals, on June 9 and 10.

The situation is much less encouraging for Union Bordeaux-Bègles, beaten for the fourth time in its last five trips but which certainly retains its sixth place, with a point ahead of Toulon, where the Girondins will go on the last day, May 28.

In a sold-out Stadium, the Stade Toulousain had decided to revive the beaten Leinster by lining up its typical team against a formation that had announced "want to bring back points".

The indispensable Dupont

The Red and Black tauliers have also responded with in the role of the guide the indispensable Antoine Dupont.

Toulouse third row wing Jack Willis scores a try against Bordeaux-Bègles, on May 7, 2023 in Toulouse © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

Dynamiter on the second try scored by Alexandre Roumat (31) then decisive passer on the third materialized by Jack Willis (40), the international scrum-half allowed his own to lead at the break (21-17) against a Bordeaux team that has long posed real problems to Toulouse during a first act as intense as spectacular.

The second period was much less flamboyant until the inevitable Dupont woke everyone up on a fantastic ride of thirty meters completed under the posts (28-17, 60).

Absent for two months due to an ankle injury, Bordeaux international fly-half Matthieu Jalibert had just returned to competition a few seconds earlier. Visibly hit on a finger, he was replaced twelve minutes later.

Reduced to fourteen after the yellow card of Louis Bielle-Biarrey (64), the Girondins then definitively surrendered.

© 2023 AFP