Toulon Vs Cardiff Blues Final of Amlin Challenge Cup
After a “crazy” semi-final against Clermont (lost) passed week-end, RC Toulon has a new big match, this time at European level, on Sunday 23rd May against the Cardiff Blues.
Cardiff, the Welsh Ogre
Cardiff is not “any” team; it is a team coming after taking the Heineken Cup. They were in the hardest group of the competition including Stade Toulousain, Sale Sharks and Harlequins, and finished at 2nd place (since this year, 3 clubs are transferred to Amlin Challenge Cup after non qualification to quarter-final of Heineken Cup), they were in semi-final last year, after defeating Toulouse in quarter-final! They beat successively Newcastle (55-20, in England) and London Wasps (18-15, again in England).
They finished at 5th place of Celtic Magners league, but didn’t qualify for the semi-finals by only 1 point (Munster finished at 4th place). This final is the only thing this team has to play at the end of this season, exactly the contrary of Toulon, who played a pressure filled match against Clermont and had to play extra-time (100 minutes for some players). That is why Cardiff players will be fresh and why fitness will play a huge role!
After this small analysis we might think that Toulon, doesn’t have a chance to win the title this year, but this team has been extraordinary since the beginning of the season and especially the past two months, with 12 victories in a row, winning the French championship and the Challenge Cup. They have proved to everybody last weekend that their desire to win at all costs attitude can help them to overcome any challenger.
Why Toulon will win this final
Toulon is really impressive this late in the season: ranking second in the Championship (automatically being qualified in the semi-final); the team has beaten - Toulouse, Perpignan and Clermont in only a few weeks. In the Challenge Cup, Toulon was in a difficult pool with Castres (ranking fifth in the top 14) and the Saracens (ranking third in the English Premiership), and has only been defeated once, against the Saracens. Toulon has also defeated the Scarlets in the quarter-finals, a Welsh club coming from the Heineken Cup tournament and in the semi-finals. The dark side of this wonderful season is that the team is physically and mentally exhausted after going through a punishing schedule. But as Mourad Boudjellah announced, he wants a title this year on “La Rade” even if it is “only” a small European cup. The season is already a success, this title is just a bonus, because with this Cup Toulon would prove to the world of rugby that it is a great club again.
Moreover, the match is played in Marseille (60 km away from Toulon), so the 60,000 seats in the Stade Vélodrome will be filled with Toulon supporters, singing their famous “Pilou Pilou” and supporting their team.
And because this is the year of French rugby (for example; Great Chelem winning the six-nations tournament, two French clubs in the Heineken cup finals), Toulon does not want to miss the party, despite the injury of two of its most important players, the Australian fullback Like Rooney and the flanker Olivier Missoup.
Nothing is certain for this match except the fact that it will be very intense and that both teams want to win it. A slight advantage for Toulon who are in great form.
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