This 22nd day of Top 14 will be marked by many derbies which promise to be colorful. To start with Castres (5th) – Toulouse (3rd) Saturday. After two years disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the centenary derby will be held in a boiling and packed Pierre-Fabre stadium. The task will not be easy for the Toulousains since the CO has not lost at home since December 2020.
Orphan of his former best enemy Corrézien, Tulle, fallen into the federal depths, Brive (12th) will play his maintenance and the supremacy of the Massif Central 180 km from his home, on the ground of Clermont (8th), in the obligation to win to hope to see the final stages.
Montpellier (1st) will have a little more than 150 km to cover, along the Mediterranean, to go and defend his seat as leader in Perpignan (13th), who still has a slim hope of avoiding the penultimate place, synonymous with a maintenance-relegation barrage.
Even seeing very broadly, we cannot really speak of a derby between Lyons (6th) and Toulon (9th), two teams with opposite dynamics, no more than between Biarritz (14th) and Paul (10th). The two cities of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques are only about 120 km apart, but for the BO, the real derby is played even closer, and between Basques, facing Bayonne.
Another match that some like to present as a derby, the confrontationUnion Bordeaux-Bègles (2nd) and La Rochelle (4th). If 190km separate the two clubs, only two places separate them in the standings. The battle will be fierce between these two title contenders. Finally on Sunday, the Ile-de-France derby between the Racing 92 (7th) and the French Stadium (11th).
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