Table-topping Castres welcome Toulouse to the Allianz Riviera in the first of the Top 14 semi-finals. Darry Worthington previews.
The first of this weekend’s semi-finals sees surprise package and regular season table-toppers, Castres, take on reigning champions Toulouse. This should be an absolute cracker of a game with Toulouse hitting form at just the right time and Castres coming off a solid end of the regular season run-in.
Castres v Toulouse
Friday 17 June
Allianz Riviera
21:05
To Win (80 Mins)
Castres 3/1 | Draw 20/1 | Toulouse 27/100
The visitors were involved in an extremely entertaining semi-final last weekend beating La Rochelle 33-28. The stars of the show for Toulouse were their French 9-10 combination of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack who managed to bag a try apiece. The young guns are likely to be the difference makers here if Toulouse are to get over the line against Castres.
Castres managed to avoid the play-offs and automatically qualify for this weekend’s semi-finals by virtue of finishing the regular season at the summit of the Top 14 table. They have a magnificent run-in to the play-offs winning their final five regular-season games. While this is pretty impressive, it must be noted that two of these wins came against minnows Biarritz and Perpignan.
These two sides have already faced off twice this year with Castres winning 19-13 at home and Toulouse running out 41-0 victors at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
Verdict: Toulouse 27/100
They have found form at the right time and I can see Toulouse advancing to the Top 14 Grand Final.
