Four teams and three matches are still standing in the race for the Bouclier de Brennus: defending champions Toulouse, last season’s losing finalists La Rochelle – and two sides that fell in the knockout phase a year ago, Bordeaux and Stade Francais
There were just three matches this weekend, as the Top 14 season winds down: two barrage-round matches in the race for the Brennus, and the €4million play-off at the other end of the table, for the right to join the French top flight next season.
Results
So, here are the results from the first knockout weekend of the 2023/24 Top 14 campaign, as Montpellier secured survival by the skin of a Louis Carbonel penalty in the 75th minute, La Rochelle put paid to any ongoing play-off ambitions Toulon had, and Bordeaux laid waste to Racing 92.
Match of the weekend: Grenoble 18 – Montpellier 20
Grenoble fly-half and cult hero Sam Davies ain’t wrong. This match, between the losing ProD2 finalists and the side that finished 13th in the Top 14, was widely billed as a one-sided affair.
READ ALSO The Rugby Paper: Carbonel winner ensures last-gasp Montpellier survival
For an hour – after an early Montpellier blitz in the opening 15 minutes, up to Louis Carbonel’s decisive penalty in the 75th minute – ProD2 side Grenoble had the winning of the ‘access match’, the Top14-ProD2 promotion-relegation play-off, worth a reported €4million to the winner.
Captain Steeve Blanc-Mappaz, after playing his final Grenoble match before he moves to Lyon, insisted that Montpellier weren’t fortunate to win. “Montpellier were a pragmatic team, who knew how to keep their heads. We just couldn’t kill the game off … When they came into our half, they took their points and controlled their game, though I think we gave them problems.”
But, the truth is – for all Blanc-Mappaz’s respectful post-match philosophising – the result looked an awful lot like a very fortunate Montpellier smash-and-grab. A little more composure from Grenoble, and the result would have been different.
Certainly players on the winning team thought they’d got away with it: Fullback Julien Tisseron said: “It’s relief, a very special feeling, that I don’t want to relive.”
And captain Lenni Nouchi added: “It’s been such an intense season, it’s an indescribable relief. It’s good to see things turning in our favour.”
As for coach Patrice Collazo: “It’s more than a victory. Throughout the season, we often gave up at the end, when we were behind. We lost a lot of matches like that.
“I told them, after this match, this group will become a team. In the last 15 minutes, we saw Montpellier finally become a team.”
It’s a bit late in the season, perhaps, but in a match where the result is everything, it will have to do. But a lot of remedial work needs doing at Montpellier before the new season kicks off on the weekend of September 7.
As Collazo said: “We simply wanted to win. In this context, where everything is said, written or interpreted, what really counts is that. Today, everything was in place for Montpellier to fall, and in the end, everything we haven’t had all season, we got tonight. Once again, this match will be the starting point for a new chapter, and we’ll build on it, whether some people like it or not…”
Anyway, this is the club’s social media team’s considered opinion on the result, top-flight survival, and – possibly – the season…
Individual performance
Oscar Jegou. La Rochelle manager Ronan O’Gara sang his 21-year-old backrow’s praises after the 31-31 draw against Toulouse at the beginning of June. He had good reason then.
He had good reason, again, on Saturday. Not that he did, but that’s beside the point. Jegou was key to La Rochelle’s second try, vital to their third, scored their fourth, was a javelin at the lineout – rendering the absence of Lavault, Boudehent and Dillane moot – and topped the tackle list with 20.
Flop
Toulon. Really. Yes, Racing 92 were utterly outclassed at Bordeaux in Sunday’s second barrage match. Yes, they could easily be mentioned here. But, in the highest-ever scoring barrage round match, which finished 34-29, Toulon could – and should – have done better against La Rochelle.
They had home advantage. The fans had packed out Stade Mayol. Pierre Mignoni had rested key players the previous weekend, and made 10 changes to his starting XV on Saturday, while opposite number Ronan O’Gara did not have that luxury – given his side’s precarious hold on a top six place – and kept faith with the starters that had beaten Racing at Marcel Deflandre a week previously.
Yet, the side with the second-best attack and the third-best defence in the Top 14 was, by turns, blunted and picked open by a side better known for its stonewall qualities than its rapier offence.
Experience tells, clearly. La Rochelle were looking to make their fifth semi-final in seven years. Toulon were chasing their first since going all the way to the 2017 final, in their first play-off appearance since 2018.
READ ALSO Ronan O’Gara’s relief as La Rochelle eye Toulouse revenge: ‘We’ve woken up now’
“We lacked character,” Mignoni said afterwards. “We lost the battle on the floor – this is usually a strength of ours.”
It was preying on his mind, clearly. He added: “We’re a team that fights for the ball in the rucks the most. We’re pretty strong in this area. We weren’t tonight.”
Despite everything, Mignoni wanted to look to the positives: “We’re back in the top echelons. The season has been far from catastrophic, but it’s hard to lose at home. We need to learn from that and come back better.”
Wrong result. Right response.
Quote of the week
“We have to do better, right? We cannot blame misfortune, weather or the spirits. We only have ourselves to blame. This team, despite some spasms, completely collapsed over the course of the season. It’s a year that some might call a ‘transition’ …”
Racing 92 owner Jacky Lorenzetti doesn’t even try to hide his disappointment in an interview with Rugbyrama shortly after his star-spangled club lost 31-17 to Bordeaux, in which he points decidedly harsh fingers of blame at Josua Tuisova, who was injured for a large portion of the season, and Siya Kolisi, who came back from a knee ligament injury in record time to play two RWC warm-up matches, then six during the tournament en route to lifting the Webb Ellis Cup for a second time, then started 18 matches for his new club – all while enjoying French bread…
Talking point
Fabien Galthie’s first tranche of selection calls for the July tour of Argentina and Uruguay. Timing – the squad flies out on June 26, before the Top 14 final – and an agreement between the FFR and LNR not to select players most heavily involved in the World Cup and Six Nations has limited his options, which the staff are selling as a chance to check out more players.
There are certainly a few new names on the first list – a second and complete 42-player list is due out on Sunday, June 23, after the Top 14 semi-finals. No fewer than 19 uncapped players have been named, including Munster centre Antoine Frisch, and Theo Attissogbe who, under different circumstances, could have been on the Under-20 squad defending France’s World Championship title in South Africa.
But there is a notable absentee – Patrick Tuifua, whose star burned all too briefly during the 2024 Under-20 Six Nations before he returned to Hawke’s Bay. France have made no secret of their desire to tempt the New Caledonia-born backrow to Les Bleus. But – according to reports in France – he’s yet to decide between a possible rugby future in France or New Zealand.
A couple of weeks ago, Galthie told L’Equipe: “We’ve been watching him during the [Six Nations’ Under-20] Tournament. He’s a player we don’t know. We’re going to take the opportunity to take a close look at him. But if he comes with us on tour, it means he’s been captured. We won’t do it for that. He has the right to choose what he wants to do, and we’ll ask him.”
The absence of Tuifua’s from this first list raised an obvious question – has he chosen New Zealand? Or, will his name feature on Sunday’s second, definitive list? Certainly, a third way, the under-20 World Championship in South Africa, appeared to be ruled out when the FFR revealed Sebastien Calvet’s squad for the tournament, not long after it had announced the senior training squad.
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L’Equipe later revealed that Tuifua had suffered a knee injury in training at Marcoussis this week, keeping him on the sidelines for a month, and ruling him out of France’s under-20 squad. A decision, then, that has been kicked down the road for a while longer.
Coming up
Just the two matches next week. Toulouse v La Rochelle on Friday at 8.15pm (France time), and Stade Francais v Bordeaux on Saturday, at 9.05pm (still France time). Both games are at the Matmut Atlantique, in Bordeaux.
NB: It’s likely there’ll be no review next week [stop cheering at the back] because of real, paying work.
My name is James Harrington. I’m a freelance sports journalist, writing mostly about French club and international rugby. If, after reading this, you feel the urge to commission me for match previews, reviews, articles, news, features, interviews, live blogs, feel free to contact me
And, please read my weekly French rugby column in The Rugby Paper every Sunday. And I also round-up all the weekend’s Top 14 action on the Irish Examiner website.
James Harrington: Freelance sports journalist 