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In 1999 Gonzalo Quesada left his mark on global rugby by being the leading scorer in the Rugby World Cup. His 102 points were spread around wins over Samoa, Japan and Ireland and hard-fought losses against Wales and France. Sixteen years on he has coached Stade Français to the Top 14 title and, in doing so, ending an eight year drought for the Parisians.
Not since 2007 had Stade Français won the Top 14 and nor had the club reached another final. Like in 2007 the title was won against central French club, Clermont Auvernge. Remarkably the club would also lose the finals in 2008 and 2009 before winning in 2010 only to then fail to reach the final until 2015, and again losing as was also the case in the 2013 and 2015 European club finals.
The long wait between titles for Stade Français occurred despite the club having a wealth of resources both in terms of players and coaches. Following the departure of Faiben Galthié the club invested in two future Australian coaches – Ewen McKenzie and current coach Michael Cheika and would also call upon former English international Richard Pool-Jones in addition to current Toulon forwards coach Jacques Delmas.
Not only were any of Galthié’s replacements able to win the title but they also coached a powerful team through a dark period in which the club missed out on reaching the Semi Finals from 2009-2014 and has been absent from the European Champions Cup (formerly Heineken Cup) since 2010. This has now ended and Quesada has exceeded expectations by knocking-out Racing 92, Toulon and Clermont to win the Bouclier de Brennus.
The title winning victory as a spectacle was far from memorable with Quesada’s side winning a tryless match 12-6. At the heart of the victory was a solid scrum and keeping the ball in play by sending the Clermont forwards back within their own territory repeatedly.
The absences of Wesley Fofana, Jonathan Davies and Noa Nakaitaci played a part in this with Quesada’s tactics proving to be screwed as they had been in previous play-offs matches. With Morné Steyn having better direction than Morgan Parra Stade Français were in control at 9-3 at the interval and would hold on to withstand a late second half surge.
Steyn’s second half penalty came after replacement Brock James, who became the third Clermont goal kicker of the night, had come on and made it a 9-6 scoreline. The former Springbok’s successful goal ended the scoring and referee Pascal Gauzère deemed it to be full time as the Clermont players seeked to return for the restart.
Prominent in Quesada’s regime is a core of local players. So much so that the criticism regularly directed at the Top 14 for having too many foreign players, and this coming at the detriment of French test team, is in stark contrast to Quesada’s selection. Of the fifteen starting places ten were Frenchmen yet only two of them are in Philippe Saint-Andre’s 36-man training squad for the World Cup.
Lifting the Bouclier de Brennus was captain Sergio Parisse who is from Argentina but is to play in a fourth Rugby World Cup this year for Italy. Also expected to be in the World Cup is USA Eagle Scott LaValla who was not involved in the final for the Parisians. Canadian Jamie Cudmore also missed out on playing for Clermont but due to injury while Puma Juan Cruz Guillemaín had limited involvement this season.
The scorers:
For Paris:
Pens: Steyn 4
For Clermont:
Pens: Lopez, James
Paris
15 Djibril Camara, 14 Julien Arias, 13 Waisea Nayacalevu Vuidravuwalu, 12 Jonathan Danty, 11 Jérémy Sinzelle, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Sergio Parisse (Captain), 7 Raphaël Lakafia, 6 Antoine Burban, 5 Alexandre Flanquart, 4 Hugh Pyle, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Rémi Bonfils, 1 Heinke van der Merwe
16 Laurent Sempéré, 17 Zak Taulafo, 18 Pascal Papé, 19 Jono Ross, 20 Jérôme Fillol, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 23 Davit Kubriashvili
Clermont
15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Napolioni Nalaga, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Benson Stanley, 11 Jean-Marcellin Buttin, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Fritz Lee, 7 Julien Bardy, 6 Damien Chouly (Captain), 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 4 Paul Jedrasiak, 3 Davit Zirakashvili, 2 John Ulugia, 1 Thomas Domingo
16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Raphaël Chaume, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Alexandre Lapandry, 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 21 Brock James, 22 Mike Delany, 23 Clément Ric
