Without Antoine Dupont, life is not rosy.
Stade Toulousain, which has only played one game in a month, tripped over the carpet against Wasps (30-22) on Saturday during the 3rd day of the Champions Cup.
This defeat makes the Red and Black's European record a little less stellar in Europe this season, as they have won only one match (and have one postponed match to play) and stagnate in fifth place in Pool B To be able to defend their continental title and secure an eighth and then a quarter-final at home, Stade Toulousain will have to roll up their sleeves during the last meeting, in a week, at home, against Cardiff.
“There are not too many positives to take away”
However, the Toulouse could have made the task easy.
Despite a thunderous start and a try from François Cros after two minutes of play, the Haut-Garonnais suffered in front of a solid if not brilliant Englishman.
Too clumsy and undisciplined (11 penalties against, 19 turnovers conceded, a yellow card for Anthony Jelonch), the Toulousains did not manage to disturb Wasps, reassembled to block.
In the 34th minute, the English were reduced to fourteen with Jacob Umaga's red card.
The Wasps player left the Toulouse scrum-half Martin Page-Relo on the ground in blood, after a shock to the head.
But even outnumbered for about fifty minutes, the British got their hands on the ball, bravely playing their luck, carried by a well-placed defense and a dominating pack.
“We did not know how to take advantage of the numerical superiority or our balls in the advance, we did not know how to find the right measure.
There aren't too many positives to take away.
(…) We paid for everything in cash today.
I hope it's a rhythm problem but there are still things that really bothered me, ”explained Stade Toulousain coach Ugo Mola after the match.
🏁 It's over.
Our Stadistes bow to @WaspsRugby for the 3rd day of @ChampionsCup.#WASPSST pic.twitter.com/EVj6S1k0rQ
— Stade Toulousain (@StadeToulousain) January 15, 2022
An observation also shared by Romain Ntamack: “This match leaves me with a feeling of bitterness, of frustration.
We had room to do much better than that,” explained the French fly-half, before going into detail: “From the start of the match, we felt that we were good, at a good pace, well in defence… We make small mistakes and we let the Wasps score points too easily as soon as they come into our camp.
We feel that they are there when we have the feeling of being well.
We can't hurt them, we have an air pocket that hurts us.
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