Montpellier finds the Stade de France, four years after its last final. And he will face there Friday evening the same opponent as in 2018, Castres, crowned champion that year. It was undoubtedly the least expected final, but it does not suffer from any dispute as the Héraultais, like the Tarnais, mastered their subject this Saturday evening by dominating Bordeaux-Bègles (19-10) at the Allianz Riviera in Nice.
As the day before Romain Ntamack had kept Toulouse’s hopes alive for a while thanks to a majestic breakthrough, Matthieu Jalibert allowed the Bordelais to stay in contact with more legged Montpellier residents for a good while, by scoring a try on a personal exploit (16th). The talent has spoken. The mischievous look of the kid caught at fault and scolded by his coach, dad Urios, through the press two weeks earlier, said a lot. Annoyance is one of the best springs of this sport and the gifted, whether he liked it or not, was always piqued in his pride. “We may have reacted verbally last week (Editor’s note: after the victory against Racing 36-16 in the play-off) to the criticisms of our coach with Cameron (Woki) but there is no problem in the group, underlined the international opener after the game. Montpellier was simply stronger, in all sectors. Talent alone is not enough indeed. The Héraultais, who rested last week, seemed fresher, cleaner in their achievements, more effective in their intentions.
Despite the absence of South African scrum-half Cobus Reinach and second row Paul Willemse, who have been injured for a long time, Philippe Saint-André’s players, transformed this season and finally living up to their ambitions, have taken control of the encounter while muzzling the arrows coming from Gironde. This is also the constant that we can extract from these semi-finals in Nice: winning rugby is that of a flawless collective, with precise organization, aggressive defense and minimal risk taking. . “Last year, we were fighting to avoid relegation, trumpeted scrum-half Benoît Paillaugue. When you believe in it, when you train hard, you get there. We are only one match away from our first title, it will be a completely different story than in 2018, but Castres is heavy. »
A duel between two suitors who look alike. Like Castres, Montpellier is nothing flamboyant. Like the Tarnais, the Héraultais only offer very few holds to their adversaries. They suffocate them. To the point that Matthieu Jalibert did not experience his usual influence, as the day before Antoine Dupont had remained discreet with the ball in hand. Each time, the stars were sent home.
Dots
Montpellier : 1 attempt by Rattez (6th), 1 transformation by Paillaugue (6th); 2 drops from Garbisi (13th), Bouthier (40th); 2 penalties from Aprasidze (70th, 79th).
Bordeaux-Bègles: 1 try from Jalibert (16th), 1 conversion from Lucu (16th); 1 penalty from Lucu (5th).