Antoine Dupont and Stade Toulousain are ready to do it again in the quarter-final of the 2019 Champions Cup, when they won with Henry Chavancy's Racing 92.
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Martin Bureau / AFP
On paper, the match between Racing 92 and Stade Toulousain scheduled for this Saturday evening is presented as the poster for this fourth day of the Top 14.
But the Racingmen, long tormented by the Covid-19, will present a very different team from the one they will field in the European Cup final next Saturday in Bristol against the English of Exeter.
Stade Toulousain, which will travel with a competitive team, could well take advantage of the situation.
Last weekend, while Stade Toulousain outclassed Toulon (39-19), Racing 92 was at rest.
His Top 14 match in La Rochelle had been postponed because of nine cases of Covid-19 in the ranks of Ile-de-France.
In a week in Bristol, across the Channel, the club chaired by Jacky Lorenzetti will play the most important meeting of the last four years, after a stay in Porto-Vecchio in Corsica, from Sunday: a Champions Cup final against Exeter , to ward off the failure of 2016 against Saracens, another English cador (21-9).
Suffice to say that the reception of Toulouse, Saturday in the league, is not the priority of the moment.
The Rouge et Noir could therefore take advantage, on the synthetic fast of an Arena in Nanterre where they are as comfortable as the locals, as the Champions Cup quarter-final won in 2019 (21-22 ).
βI don't think there is a weekend where they are better to take, unsurprisingly sweeps Laurent ThuΓ©ry, the stadist defense coach.
Players will want to show up to be able to be aligned the following weekend.
It will be quite a challenge.
"
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Discover the starting XV π΄β«οΈ to face the @ racing92, Saturday at 9 p.m., at @ParisLaDefArena!
# R92ST
Go to the Stadium!
π₯ #GoST pic.twitter.com/Qg4ftYbI5k
- Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) October 9, 2020
On Wednesday, during the last tests to date, Racing 92 no longer had any positive cases in its ranks.
At the cost of drastic decisions: isolation for βhealthyβ players and closure of the training center for several days.
The team led by Laurent Travers did not resume collective training until Thursday.
His week was therefore truncated by the epidemic, and recalls that experienced by Stade Toulousain before its European semi-final lost in Exeter (28-18), on September 26.
Only three holders already lined up against the Saracens
βThey can also use us as a test, tempers the young Toulouse center Lucas Tauzin.
They will not want to make a bad preparation before a European Cup final.
βNot sure, however, that many elements lined up on Saturday are again a week later in Bristol.
Compared to the Saracens Champions Cup winners, only three holders will start against Toulouse in a very rejuvenated formation: winger Teddy Thomas, center Olivier Klemenczak and second row Donnacha Ryan.
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4β£ young people from ππππππ ππ πππππππππ
πͺ the composition of Ciel et Blanc facing @StadeToulousain at @ParisLaDefArena!
# R92ST #RacingFamily pic.twitter.com/vfAx62vMbw
- Racing 92 (@ racing92) October 9, 2020
Convalescent or spared, executives such as Russell, Iribaren, Imhoff, Vakatawa, Zebo, Lauret or Ben Arous are not even among the replacements.
Jacky Lorenzetti can well confide to AFP that his club "is serenely considering the match against Toulouse on Saturday and further on the European Cup final".
For its part, Stade Toulousain can "calmly" consider the prospect of a feat, even in a team still undefeated since the resumption of competition this summer.
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