Jonny Wilkinson got the retirement send-off that he was hoping for when he steered Toulon to victory over Castres 18-10 in the final of the Top 14 competition.
They love him in France and as he was interviewed after the game they played “God Save The Queen” to honour one of England’s great sons.
Toulon had topped the table in the regular season and got into the final by beating Racing Metro of Paris 16-6 in the semi-final, helped by a try by Matt Giteau.
Castres, who had won the final against Toulon last year, finished sixth on the table and got the seeming impossible tack of beating Clermont in Clermont just to qualify for the semi.
Clermont were undefeated at home in 77 games in all competitions, but Castres beat them when there were no more rabbits to pull out of the hat for the home team.
Get Jonny
Castres did it tougher still when they had to win the semi in extra time when Bai kicked a field goal to break the deadlock against Montpellier, who had been second on the ladder.
Things looked set up for Toulon, but while Castres had a week off, Toulon played a draining Heineken Cup final beating Saracens at Millennium Stadium.
It showed in Top 14 final too. Had the pragmatic Castres been on form with their modified version of Jake-ball they would have won.
First half
About the only exciting piece of play in the game came early in the match.
After Wilko had kicked a penalty goal, Castres’ wing Max Evans got the ball deep in his own half and ran to the right to find three fatties looking at him. He smoked them and when challenged 35 metres from the Toulon line he hoisted the ball and got the wicked bounce ahead of Toulon fullback Delon Armitage, who had to turn around.
Matt Giteau grabs Remi Lamerat
Evans dotted down and that made the score 7-6 to Castres at 13 minutes. After penalties were swapped and half-time coming up, Wilkinson lined-up a drop-kick with his “wrong” right foot as he did in the Heineken Cup final, and made the score 12-10 to Toulon at the break.
It wasn’t riveting stuff from the Toulon team of galacticos and Castres looked every chance to retain the trophy if they could just get sparked up themselves.
Second half
The game meandered and like a plodding fighter (Castres) trying to get get close to a nifty boxer (Toulon) the teams circled each other.
Castres could not deliver the killer blow they were looking for and instead they took a couple of jabs themselves. Wilko kicked another penalty and with seven minutes remaining Armitage slotted a beauty for Toulon from outside Wilkinson’s range.
Toulouse had the lead 18-10 and Castres had no answers as to how they would score a try with change. They lost the game without firing too many shots.
Merci Jonny
Wrap-up
If it wasn’t Castres’ best game it wasn’t Toulon’s either. Their stars looked dim, and only 12 Matt Giteau and 8 Steffon Armitage seemed to know there was a final on.
But one thing the stars had was experience and they helped each other to nurse the game home.
Well done Toulon. Whatever you want to say about their wacko boss Moarad Boudjellal and the money he throws around to buy trophies, his players have lifted the standard of the competition and of late have not been spoiled brats either.
Well done to Jonny Wilkinson who retires like that other great man of rugby, Brian O’Driscoll, and also with a victory—for Leinster in the Rabo Pro 12 final.
You did our sport proud guys; it was great to know you.
Scoring
Toulon 18 (J. Wilkinson 3, D. Armitage pens; J. Wilkinson fd goal) def Castres 10 (M. Evans try; R. Kockott con, pen)
Teams
Toulon: 1 Xavier Chiocci, 2 Craig Burden, 3 Carl Hayman, 4 Bakkies Botha, 5 Ali Williams, 6 Juan Smith, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 8 Steffon Armitage, 9 Sebastien Tillous Borde, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 11 Bryan Habana, 12 Matt Giteau, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 14 Drew Mitchell, 15 Delon Armitage
Replacements: 16 Jean Charles Orioli, 17 Alexandre Menini, 18 Jocelino Suta , 19 Virgile Bruni, 20 Danie Rossouw, 21 Maxime Mermoz , 22 Michael Claassens, 23 Martin Castrogiovanni.
Castres: 1 Saimone Taumoepeau, 2 Brice Mach, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 4 Richie Gray, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 6 Piula Faasalele, 7 Yannick Caballero, 8 Antonie Claassen, 9 Rory Kockott, 10 Remi Tales,11 Remy Grosso,12 Remi Lamerat, 13 Romain Cabannes,14 Max Evans, 15 Brice Dulin,
Replacements: 16 Mathieu Bonello, 17 Yannick Forestier, 18 Christophe Samson, 19 Jan Bornman, 20 Cedric Garcia, 21 Seremaia Bai, 22 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 23 Mihaita Lazar.
Details
Referee: Mr. Christophe Berdos
Venue: Stade Français, Paris
Crowd: 80, 174
Video highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGL_5ULMj4U
