impact player.
Finally, bad impact.
Back in the 45th minute, expulsion in the 66th.
Dominated by Racing 92, rough in its game and its initiatives and always behind in the score, the Stade Français did not need its hooker Tolu Latu to receive a red card for having knocked down Racingman Baptiste Chouzenoux in the air.
An expulsion of the most logical, which does not suffer from any dispute.
So what did his teammates say to each other when he was expelled?
“We say to ourselves that there is a red card, quite simply,
recognizes cash opener Joris Segonds.
It's a shame Tolu today
(Saturday)
cost us a lot of points.
Afterwards, he's a player, he's like us.
Certainly, he took a good comeback but we must not forget that he made us win a few matches before.
It happens, there are days without it, that's how it is... It's a shame for him, it's sad for the club too.
This is where we take the most penalties in a short time, four penalties, it put our heads in the bottom of the bucket.
Read alsoStade Français-Racing 92: the favorites and claws of our special correspondent
Problem, the Australian hooker of Tongan origin (22 selections) is not his first "coup de brilliance".
This season, he has indeed received six yellow cards and now two red cards.
A recurring indiscipline which has regularly put his team in difficulty at crucial moments.
His case also agitates the Parisian club and its staff, as Gonzalo Quesada admitted after the match, who wants to take some responsibility by having chosen to play this solid player (1.75 m for 110 kg), who remains one of the best hookers in the Top 14, especially in closed scrum.
It's my fault too.
After a long debate, I gave in for him to play
Gonzalo Quesada
“What about this red card? That it is a completely shared fault,
recognizes the Parisian manager.
And as I said to the players, I apologized, there was a long debate - I'm not going to say more about this debate - but Tolu did what he did in all his last matches.
It's a shared fault: we are the ones who put him on the pitch and he did what he did what he did in all these last matches, so there are no surprises.
But I do not know.
We feel it coming
(his fault),
you say to yourself "no, he's not going to do it"..."
Deprived of many experience (Alo-Emile, Kremer, Maestri, Laumape), Stade Français relied on its available executives to hold the barracks against Racing.
Tolu Latu was one of them and he penalized his team a little more, which was already punished too often.
But Quesada remains on his line of defense, it was he who decided (even if he obviously did not agree) to line him up for this round of 16 first leg of the Champions Cup:
"Once again, it's my fault too.
After a long debate, I gave in for him to play.
So it's for me too.
Tolu did what he did during all the last matches he played: silly mistakes, cards.
We put it on, he came in, he took a box.
So it's up to me to be responsible too."
I hope for him that it will do it, we will help him because there he is not very well.
In any case, we will be with him
Joris Segonds
The Stade Français, in addition to these sporting problems, had to manage other overflows.
In March 2021, the hooker, after drinking too much, fell asleep at the wheel of his car and hit five vehicles that were parked in the 16th arrondissement of the capital.
A similar slip had already happened to him in Australia, two years earlier, when he was playing for the Waratahs (who had suspended him).
An investigation had revealed at the time that he had had to face serious personal problems including the death of an uncle.
Despite his problems with the Stade Français which this time are only sporting, Tolu Latu will be able to count, in the days to come, on the support of his club and his teammates.
“I hope for him that it will do it, we will help him because there he is not very well,
confides Joris Segonds.
In any case, we will be with him.
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