Toulouse look set to take top spot

TONIGHT, more than 24 hours after both the Premiership and URC celebrated their champions for the 2022/23 campaign, the Top 14 reaches its last regular season round, with three weeks of post-season play-off phase still to come.

- JAMES HARRINGTON

 

All seven matches kick off at the same time this weekend, to ensure fairness, added drama, and plenty of images of coaching teams nervously checking their phones to find out what’s going on elsewhere.

With good reason, even though, at first glance there may not seem there’s much to decide – two of the four semi-final places are taken, five of six play-off places are filled, and one of the two relegation places is confirmed. But, hidden in that apparent order, there’s a lot still to be decided.

Toulouse and newly recrowned Champions Cup winners La Rochelle are guaranteed a top-two finish, which come with a direct pass to the semi-finals in San Sebastian, northern Spain, on June 9 and 10.

The only consideration for the top two – as leaders Toulouse entertain already relegated Brive this evening, and La Rochelle host third-placed Stade Francais – is who will finish the season at the top of the pile, play in the first semi-final and have kit and dressing room preference in the final eight days later.

The odds are in favour of Toulouse finishing in first place. More than one of their players has mentioned it as a major target this week. They’re two points clear of the Rochelais, and there’s, frankly, little advantage for La Rochelle in chasing first too hard on this side of the semi-finals.