This Saturday, the Rugby Club Toulonnais receives ASM Clermont Auvergne at 3:00 p.m.
A "shock" between the triple European champion (2013, 2014, 2015) and the triple finalist of this same competition (2013, 2015, 2017) beaten twice by Toulon.
But this season, the two clubs, jostled by a change of coach, are struggling to find the heights.
To discover
Schedule and Top 14 results
Ranking Top 14
Toulon in “remontada” mode
It is in tenth position in the championship with 42 points that the RCT receives ASM, eighth in the Top 14 with 48 points.
Toulon come on the strength of a 41-11 success against La Rochelle last weekend in Mayol and want to take advantage of this dynamic.
"
We are far from having arrived
," said Franck Azéma at a press conference.
We have a big team coming up this weekend and we have to be able to put on a string of performances.
We must not do a one-shot and have continuity.
»
Read alsoTop 14: Romain Ntamack will return to Toulouse until 2028
The RCT coach finds a team he knows well since he was in the Clermont staff between 2010 and 2021. But he ensures that this match is "
nothing personal
".
“
I know this team well, I know how they are going to play.
There is too much talent in Clermont to focus on so and so.
We have to focus on us.
We have to do even better than last week
,” insists Franck Azéma, who arrived in La Rade on 28 October.
Toulon, which fell to last place in the championship after several postponed matches, is now making its comeback on the home stretch of this Top 14. However, Franck Azéma wants to remain cautious.
“
We are looking ahead.
First we play Clermont, and then we'll see.
We are not yet out of the red zone.
The slightest misstep brings you down the rankings.
You have to dream, but you also have to be pragmatic and realistic
.”
The RCT coach is also counting on the return of his internationals - Jean-Baptiste Gros and Gabin Villière - to breathe new life into them.
The two Grand Slam winners should be on the field this Saturday at 3 p.m.
“
We don't have that luxury
(to do without them, editor's note)
, we are against the clock.
»
Read alsoTop 14: “The internationals will bring a lot”, anticipates Page-Relo (Toulouse)
Clermont travels badly
For its part, Clermont remains on three consecutive victories in the league after having experienced a series of four defeats.
Three successes garnered at Marcel-Michelin and only one triumph outside this season in the Top 14: on the lawn of Montpellier on October 16th.
“
The latest results have allowed us to install a good dynamic but we do not want to be satisfied with these last three victories, everyone has the ambition to continue to do better,
assures the third row Judicaël Cancoriet.
We are still alive, but we have no margin and it will be like this every weekend.
Collectively, our goal remains qualification.
»
For his part, coach Jono Gibbes fears this move to the Toulon green square.
“
The best games to play are ahead of us.
We are going to travel to Mayol against a team from Toulon who knew how to gain freedom after their good performances against Biarritz and La Rochelle.
It will be a great challenge for our team in an atmosphere that we know well.
We are lucid, we know that it is the matches that we are going to play away from home that can bring us back up the rankings.
»
Read alsoRené Bouscatel: “The good health of professional rugby affects the XV of France”
Before this match counting for the 21st day of the championship, Toulon is eight points ahead of Perpignan, 13th, but accuses nine points less than Racing, sixth.
Aware of the accumulated delay, Franck Azéma set the Champions Cup and eighth place as his first objectives.
For the second year in a row, the RCT could not play the final stages of the championship.
Clermont, eliminated in the play-offs by UBB last season, is only three points from the top 6. A stormy final sprint in the league for ASM, interspersed with the European Cup and a double confrontation against in Leicester (April 10 and 16).
