Zack Holmes and Stade Toulousain against Montpellier at Stade Ernest-Wallon, February 23, 2020. -

Rémy Gabalda / AFP

  • Defeated with honors in Clermont on Sunday (33-30) at the opening of the Top 14, Stade Toulousain launches its home season on Saturday against La Rochelle.

  • The Rouge et Noir will be back in their enclosure for the first time since February 23, in front of a very reduced gauge due to coronavirus.

Unheard of since February 23 and success in Montpellier (25-7).

Stade Toulousain will play at Ernest-Wallon this Saturday against La Rochelle, on the second day of the new Top 14. The old one stopped at the beginning of March, blocked by the coronavirus, and the 19,000-seat enclosure s' was found orphaned by her Rouge et Noir for nearly seven months or, more precisely, 202 days.

"It's very important to play again at home in front of our family and the few people there will be," launches the third line François Cros.

4,800 people (subscribers and partners) are expected while the gauge remains limited to 5,000 in Haute-Garonne, placed in red because of active circulation of Covid-19.

And the situation will repeat itself eight days later, since the quarter-final of the European Cup against the Irish from Ulster, on September 20, was relocated to Walloon.

Have you also dreamed of trying @ Dupont9A?

🥰


While waiting for the summary of # ASMST, we make you relive this magnificent action, initiated by a magic pass from @ ThomRamos15!

🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/hNpY12vSAu

- Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) September 7, 2020

"I do not know how the atmosphere will be, admits the back Thomas Ramos, whose pass between the legs at the origin of the test of Antoine Dupont Sunday in Clermont (defeat 33-30) did the trick from the web.

But there will only be people who will support us.

The stadium will be a bit hollow.

We played in front of 10,000 people in Clermont [on prefectural exemption], it was far from full, but it can be felt anyway.

Here, we have to do with this gauge of 5,000 and it would be too easy to find an excuse.

"

A fungus problem

Toulouse should have already played in its fetish stadium in a friendly, August 28 against Montpellier.

But a case of Covid-19 in its workforce had led to the cancellation of this trial run.

Before Saturday, the players will not have set foot on the lawn until this Friday, for the installation, in order to spare a lawn long tortured by a nasty fungus, now extinct.

“It's necessarily a bit unsettling, agrees Clément Poitrenaud, the rear coach.

Once again, we will have to adapt to this new environment, to these new locker rooms [built during work carried out in recent months], at this almost empty stage.

We count on the 4,800 people present to make noise like 18,000.

"

Stade Toulousain: “We're going to create frustration”… Deprived of a Stadium for the European Cup, Toulouse juggles with the 5,000-seat gauge


https://t.co/fxagoWspxz via @ 20minutes pic.twitter.com/c4Yew9tHHP

- 20 Minutes Toulouse (@ 20minutestoul) September 9, 2020

If the Stade Toulousain reproduces the spectacle which almost crippled the ASM last Sunday in Auvergne, while the Rouge et Noir were led by 18 points at the break and reduced to 14 and then to 13, it is not impossible.

But opposite, the Rochelais, winners of Toulon last weekend (29-15), promise tough opposition.

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