Martin Lange // Photo credit: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
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9:21 a.m., May 25, 2024
Stade Toulousain is playing the final of the European Rugby Cup this Saturday afternoon. A poster which will take place in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in London. Kick-off will be at 3:45 p.m. But the challenge promises to be immense for Toulouse against the Irish from Leinster.
It’s a dream poster that will reach the 60,000 fans who will be present in London this Saturday. The two most successful teams in Europe face off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. On one side, Stade Toulousain, its five European titles and its myriad of French internationals like Antoine Dupont, Thomas Ramos and Romain Ntamack.
“We do all this work to get there, to these high-intensity matches”
On the other, the Irish province of Leinster. Only four European Cups, but a XV that looks exactly like that of the Irish national team. This poster is a sort of France-Ireland on English soil. The Toulouse president, Didier Lacroix, is already salivating: “We are doing all this work to get there, to these high-intensity matches. Stade Toulousain and Leinster remain the two clubs which are the most successful and they come to fight, at the -beyond this finale, a multi-decadal supremacy which is even more delicious.”
Especially since the Toulouse have a revenge to take, they remain on four defeats against the Leinstermen. The last one was in the semi-final last year. But the reigning French champion has never seemed so strong. Undisputed leader of the Top 14, undefeated in Europe, he relies on a generation at the top of its game who dreams of adding a sixth star to the red jersey.