Challenge Cup: Toulon-Glasgow, a final in figures

0

The Rugby Club Toulonnais and the Glasgow Warriors have never faced each other.

1

The Glasgow Warriors will play their first ever final of an EPCR tournament. Only one Scottish province has already reached the final: Edinburgh in the 2015 Challenge Cup.

2

The two Toulon coaches have already won the Challenge Cup as players. Pierre Mignoni won it in the jersey of ASM Clermont in 2007. Franck Azéma was also crowned with Clermont (Montferrand at the time) in 1999.

3

Benoît Paillaugue could win the Challenge Cup for the third time. The RCT scrum-half has already lifted the trophy in 2016 and 2021 with Montpellier.

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Toulon will play, this Friday evening in Dublin, its fifth Challenge Cup final. A record. However, the Var club has lost its previous four finals. The Var club lost in 2010 against Cardiff (28-21 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille), in 2012 against Biarritz (21-18), in 2020 against Bristol (32-19) and in 2022 against Lyon (30-12, again at the Stade Vélodrome).

RCT can become the first French club to win the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup

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If RCT wins, it will become the fifth club - but the first French - to have won both competitions, the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup. English clubs Bath, Northampton and Wasps, as well as the Irish province of Leinster, have already achieved this double.

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Glasgow Warriors hooker Johnny Matthews is the tournament's top scorer with seven tries. He scored five alone in early April in the eighth round against the Newport Dragons (Wales). A performance achieved in 28 minutes (14th, 22nd, 26th, 33rd, 42nd)! He was then replaced in the 46th minute of the match... On the Toulon side, it is the Fijian Jiuta Wainiqolo who dominates this statistic with five tries scored.

17

Seventeen clubs - including eight French: Clermont (3 times), Montpellier (2), Stade Français, Bourgoin, Pau, Biarritz, Colomiers and Lyon - have already won the Challenge Cup. Glasgow or Toulon will be the 18th to write his name on the list.