Last weekend Toulouse claimed their 19th French championship title with a 18-12 Top 14 Final win over Touloun at the Stade de France. The game was tryless and we hadn’t featured highlights until now, so here is a catch up video if you missed it.
The game was dominated up front by Toulouse, but a few errors resulted in Jonny Wilkinson’s boot keeping Toulon very much in the contest. He and Luke McAlister exchanged kicks throughout the game, with Wilkinson slotting four penalties in total.
There was a bit of a scuffle in the second half as hookers William Servat and Sebastian Bruno exchanged blows and were both sent to the sin-bin.
Wilkinson had a 50m shot at goal, but fell short. Fullback Benjamin Lapeyre attempted the same, as he usually has a bigger boot, but he also missed and Toulon failed to capitalise.
With time almost up and Toulouse leading following further penalties from McAlister, who scored all of their points with six kicks at goal, Toulon had a great chance to score out wide through David Smith. He dropped a high pass though, blowing a chance at attacking the overlap.
“I look at the young players and the whole of my staff enjoying it and being rewarded for their hard work,” said coach Noves. “We’re used to very good things and we want to repeat them. But it was tough until the final whistle today. We could have lost at the end, conceded a converted try.
“I’m a little disappointed because it wasn’t a beautiful final. But with finals, well, you have to win them and that’s it. We scored loads of tries throughout the season.
“We tried to put on a show, but today we had to win,” he added.
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