24 more hours recovery. Finishing top, it's normal that they have advantages: choosing the schedule of the team run, choosing to play the semi-final on Friday - after putting in so much effort, it's normal you have some privileges,” he told regional newspaper Midi Libre.
Consensus agrees with Saint-Andre. In part. This final, a match no one called when the season kicked off in September and that few still expected as it drew to a close, is destined to be a close encounter of the intense, hard-fought kind.
Spectacle hunters may have wanted a final involving two of Toulouse or La Rochelle, Bordeaux or Racing 92. What they’ve ended up with is one of the more intriguing match-ups.
This is the seventh time the two sides have met in the knockout phase since the Ligue Nationale de Rugby - organisers of the Top 14 and ProD2 - introduced post-season play-offs in 2010.
It’s a domestic draw almost as regular as Munster-Castres in Europe.
The two sides’ last knockout meeting was in the 2018 final. Castres upset the odds and an internationals-heavy Montpellier that day to lift their fifth title in what was until this season their last play-off adventure, and the last-but-one for Montpellier as both sides hit difficult patches.
Many things are different this time around. New coaches, new systems, new success - but still the same lack of regard outside their base.
Montpellier will want their third final to be the charm, following defeats in 2012 and 2018, to send Guilhem Guirado and Fulgence Ouadreogo into retirement with a title. They’re less destructive these days but harder to break down in defence.
Castres, meanwhile, have again mostly gone under the radar, as more fashionable sides rose and waned. They have their own retirees - Rory Kockott and Loic Jacquet to honour. They’re less route one these days, and the better for it.
Consensus agrees with Saint-Andre. In part. This final, a match no one called when the season kicked off in September and that few still expected as it drew to a close, is destined to be a close encounter of the intense, hard-fought kind.
Spectacle hunters may have wanted a final involving two of Toulouse or La Rochelle, Bordeaux or Racing 92. What they’ve ended up with is one of the more intriguing match-ups.
This is the seventh time the two sides have met in the knockout phase since the Ligue Nationale de Rugby - organisers of the Top 14 and ProD2 - introduced post-season play-offs in 2010.
It’s a domestic draw almost as regular as Munster-Castres in Europe.
The two sides’ last knockout meeting was in the 2018 final. Castres upset the odds and an internationals-heavy Montpellier that day to lift their fifth title in what was until this season their last play-off adventure, and the last-but-one for Montpellier as both sides hit difficult patches.
Many things are different this time around. New coaches, new systems, new success - but still the same lack of regard outside their base.
Montpellier will want their third final to be the charm, following defeats in 2012 and 2018, to send Guilhem Guirado and Fulgence Ouadreogo into retirement with a title. They’re less destructive these days but harder to break down in defence.
Castres, meanwhile, have again mostly gone under the radar, as more fashionable sides rose and waned. They have their own retirees - Rory Kockott and Loic Jacquet to honour. They’re less route one these days, and the better for it.