1
'It feels great to get that fifth star' - Toulouse celebrate Champions Cup glory
Back row Jerome Kaino revealed Toulouse were motivated by the club’s past successes as they became the first team to win five Heineken Champions Cup crowns.
ADVERTISEMENT
Toulouse edged out La Rochelle in an all-French final in front of 10,000 fans at Twickenham, a red card for Levani Botia seeing their opponents reduced to 14 men in the first half.
Toulouse were still second best up front for the 80 minutes, but Juan Cruz Mallia’s try helped them to a 22-17 victory, despite Tawera Kerr-Barlow’s late effort for La Rochelle.
Kaino said: “I’m absolutely stoked and it didn’t come easy. I’m glad we got over the line.
“The pressure comes from day one when you walk into the club and you’re quite aware of the golden years. It’s a relief and feels great to get that fifth star. I’m proud of the boys.
“I have to take my hat off to La Rochelle. I think the red card galvanised them.
“It was a traditional final as it went all the way down to the wire. For us, it was a huge motivating factor to try and live up to the standard which had already been set.”
Toulouse captain Antoine Dupont was crowned European player of the year after the game.
ADVERTISEMENT
The France scrum-half said: “It’s been a very tough year with all the Covid-19 restrictions, but since the beginning it’s been a major target to win something and today we did it. I’m really pleased.”
La Rochelle led 12-9 at the break thanks to four kicks from their fly-half Ihaia West alongside three from his opposite number Romain Ntamack.
But the game’s crucial moment came when Botia smashed into Maxime Medard with a high and dangerous tackle, which left referee Luke Pearce no option other than to show red.
Toulosue also lost Rynhardt Elstadt to a yellow card, but they finally wore La Rochelle down when Mallia crossed in the second half.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kerr-Barlow got one back, but three missed kicks from West proved crucial.
La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara said: “It was going to be tough, but we made it too tough.
“We were inaccurate and indisciplined in the first 40 minutes, irrespective of the red card.
“It was a red card and we played the rest of the game with 14, but you saw what it meant to the lads and how they dug in for each other which is pleasing.
“He (Botia) doesn’t go out there intending to get a red card. He hit high which equals a red card. We are trying to make the game safer.
“We’ve no complaints. We wanted to be better with the ball and we were at the end, but didn’t do it consistently for 80 minutes. It was all about Europe – it’s a special competition.
“There are so many positives. It was a slow and wet game which didn’t suit us, but losers make excuses and we weren’t good enough. There was a cup to be won.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments