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Toulouse edge out 14-man La Rochelle to win Champions Cup for record fifth time
By PA
Toulouse claimed a record fifth European crown as they defeated 14-man French rivals La Rochelle 22-17 to win the Heineken Champions Cup final at Twickenham.
La Rochelle centre Levani Botia became the first man to be sent off in a Champions Cup final and Toulouse eventually wore their opposition down despite being second best up front.
Juan Cruz Mallia’s second-half try was the crucial moment.
In front of 10,000 fans at Twickenham, Toulouse’s Francois Cros made an early break before his team-mate Romain Ntamack kicked an impressive penalty to open the scoring.
La Rochelle’s Ihaia West soon cancelled it out, but he would miss three crucial kicks over the course of the game.
Toulouse lost lock Richie Arnold to injury inside the first 10 minutes.
Ntamack kicked a second penalty, but West’s next attempt came off a post and gave La Rochelle a five-metre scrum.
It was a fine attacking position with the yellow scrum well on top, but Botia knocked on.
The pressure of a final saw lots of errors made. Toulouse missed touch, Maxime Medard also spilled the ball and La Rochelle’s Gregory Alldritt ran into his own man.
Ntamack then kicked out on the full after the ball had been passed back into his 22.
West finally gave La Rochelle a reward for their territory as he made it 6-6.
Botia then crashed into Medard with a high tackle. He was initially sin binned for stopping Toulouse’s quick penalty after his initial tackle, but the hit on Medard was checked by referee Luke Pearce.
The television pictures showed Botia’s tackle was a clear red card offence and he was sent off.
Medard was removed for a head injury assessment soon after dropping the ball.
The red card, though, did not stop La Rochelle’s intent. They kept forcing Toulouse into giving away penalties and Toulouse lost Rynhardt Elstadt to a sin binning for playing the ball on the ground.
West and Ntamack swapped penalties again, but West’s fourth kick made it 12-9 at the break, with Medard back on the field.
West then missed the chance to extend his team’s lead when the game resumed.
Toulouse had barely fired a shot in attack, but in the 45th minute that changed. Antoine Dupont kicked to Cheslin Kolbe, who dived over in the corner.
Kolbe crossed to score, but Geoffrey Doumayrou’s stunning cover tackle had forced the South African into touch before he got downward pressure. Ntamack kicked a penalty as consolation.
La Rochelle’s Pierre Bourgarit spilled the ball with the line gaping, while Toulouse also saw a television check for a try ruled out.
Toulouse finally broke through for the crucial first try on the hour mark.
Mallia was the man to go over after a fine long pass from Ntamack, who improved the score.
Ntamack kicked another penalty and, although La Rochelle grabbed a late try through Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Toulouse became the first team to win five Champions Cups.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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