Big Weekend For French Rugby As Top 14 Nears Its End

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jun, 2021 ) :It has been a vintage year for French rugby with a spiritual rebirth of the national team and Top 14 clubs sweeping the honours in the European competitions.

This weekend, the semi-finals of the Top 14 will highlight the depth and talent currently on offer in the French game.

Toulouse and La Rochelle, the two sides that contested the European Champions Cup final, finished first and second in the regular season and were rewarded with direct entry to the semi-finals.

On Friday, La Rochelle will host Racing 92, European finalists in 2020 and narrowly beaten in this year's quarter-finals by Bordeaux who face Toulouse on Saturday.

Two epic contests are in store from four teams, each of whom is capable on its day of being a worthy champion.

European champions Toulouse, sparked by France halfbacks Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, have the added incentive of making it a double with their 21st French championship. Having won the last completed edition in 2019, they are, of course, defending their crown.

"We hope to be able to ward off fate and finally win," Bordeaux's forward coach Jean-Baptiste Poux, once a Toulouse player, told AFP.

"It (Toulouse) is the most successful club in Europe and France, with a lot of experience. They have the psychological advantage.

"We're preparing for the match. Not as a victim, far from it, because we have everything to play for, everything to gain and we know that we can make life hard for them." Making life hard for the champions may not be enough however for a Bordeaux team that scrapped hard to claw its way past Clermont last weekend in the play-off first round.

"For some of these players it is going to be the biggest game of their careers," Bordeaux's Tongan prop Ben Tameifuna told AFP.

"It is just whoever turns up the most hungry on the day." One look at the array of talent across the backs would suggest that nobody can stop Racing 92 who blew away Parisian rivals Stade Francais 38-21 in the play-off to get to the last four.

Outside-half Finn Russell, full-back Kurtley Beale, Teddy Thomas on the wing and an electric midfield pairing of Virimi Vakatawa and Gael Fickou suggest unplumbed depths of running rugby.

"They are very, very high-level players," said Racing prop Eddy Ben Arous.

"But we all know that if the job is not done up front, they cannot shine. If we don't win ball, they don't exist." It is a reality check that may serve Racing well as they face a La Rochelle side which, under the guidance of Jonno Gibbes and Ronan O'Gara, has become street-smart.

And they have had the weekend off which at the sharp end of a long, blistering season, may serve them well.

"Having the weekend off changes a lot of things" said O'Gara, who will take full charge of the La Rochelle side next season when Gibbes heads back to Clermont.

"We are full of energy, it was important for everyone. We were able to recharge the batteries." The club at La Rochelle was founded in 1898 but in the 123 years since, they have never been able to call themselves French champions. That may be about to change.

Top 14 semi-finals (both 1845 GMT) Friday La Rochelle v Racing 92 SaturdayToulouse v Bordeaux-Begles