Champions Cup: Carnage, abandoned title, pride hurt... Stade Toulousain promises to bounce back quickly

Seeing Stade Toulousain's hegemony challenged in this way by a French rival is unusual. Especially in recent seasons, when the Red and Blacks have dominated almost everything, achieving two European Cup-Top 14 doubles, which Guy Novès deemed unachievable in the modern era while he was still in charge. Except that this golden generation did it in 2021 and 2024. An impeccable winning machine that suffered a setback this Sunday, caught in the aggression and speed of a Union Bordeaux-Bègles determined to atone for the affront of the last Top 14 final and write its own history.

"It's hard to accept," concedes international center Pierre-Louis Barassi . "But given the score, we can't say that it wasn't decided by one action. I think there were moments when the match almost turned and we perhaps didn't seize the opportunities that were ours at that time." A statement shared by his fly-half Romain Ntamack , who was much more bitter: " They are far from being...