Lies, damn lies and statistics. Or 'dominer, c'est pas gagner'.
29.06.26, 16:09 Updated 25.08.26, 10:15
Richard Dixon
It has been said for a while now that the current group of players at Stade Toulousain is special. They demonstrated that again on Saturday night with a dominant defensive display in the first half, which meant that for all the possession and territory which Montpellier had, there wasn’t enough go forward, and there was often a lot of ‘go backwards’, thanks to some truly committed defending.
Montpellier have spent the season battering people, in open play and at set piece, but there was to be no repetition on Saturday. Toulouse conceded one scrum penalty in the whole game, and Rodrigue Neti and Joel Merkler, two somewhat unheralded prop forwards, departed after 50 minutes having got the job done. Meantime, the man they were propping, one Peato Mauvaka, had helped himself to a brace of tries. The first will live long in the memory…
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Richard Dixon Richard's fascination with French rugby is deep and longstanding. University tours were followed by a spell playing for Bergerac. Once his playing days were over, he began coaching and attended the legendary Pierre Villepreux's residential coaching camps. Richard now lives in Toulouse, and coaches young people at both Stade Toulousain and TOEC.