Toulon face a momentous task to claim a Champions Cup place
- 2096
Toulon currently sit 10th overall in the Top 14 standings and have a monumental task on their hands if they hope to make the Top 14 playoffs and secure a place in the Champions Cup next season.
The French giants have struggled this year failing to make the Champions Cup playoffs for the first time in their history and with 6 games remaining in the Top 14 they sit 14 points off of 6th placed Union Bordeaux Begles.
Toulon will need to make the most of their remaining fixtures starting with their clash with the inform Toulouse on Saturday. However, they will need to snap a two game losing streak in the Top 14 after they went down narrowly, 18-21, to Montpellier at home before the were outscored by Lyon a week later (42-33).
The former Champions Cup winners can feel a bit more confident this week with Toulouse resting some of their key men for the clash.
Thomas Ramos, Rynhardt Elstadt, Cheslin Kolbe, Sofiane Guitoune, Richie Gray, Charlie Faumuina, Zach Holmes, Maxime Medard, Jerome Kaino and Antoine Dupont are amongst the star men who starred in the victory over Racing 92 that have been rested for the clash.
A number of these players also featured in the last meeting between the two sides that saw Toulouse smash Patrice Collazo side 39-0.
A win for Toulon could be a springboard for a late surge towards a playoff spot with games against Grenoble, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, Clermont and Castres coming up.
Ideally Toulon will want to pick up victories in all of those matches and a win over Toulouse could give them the confidence to do so. If they were to beat Toulouse it's not unthinkable that they would beat Grenoble and Bordeaux in succession but the three following games against La Rochelle (A), Clermont (H) and Castres (A) will certainly put their reliance to the test.
