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The penultimate weekend of Top 14 takes place this weekend. Spread over Friday and Saturday the two Semi Finals will take place in Lyon with the winning clubs qualifying for the Top 14 Final at the Stade de France in Paris next weekend.
In the first Semi Final Lyon take-on Montpellier tonight. Lyon made history by eliminating Toulon last weekend in barrage. This saw them reaching their first ever Top 14 Semi Final. Their opponents, Montpellier, won the regular season and skipped barrage to automatically reach the final four.
Lyon have named former Argentine international Francisco Gómez Kodela to start the match. He will play tighthead and will be the only Americas player involved in the match.
The second Semi Final sees Racing 92 facing Castres on Saturday. The big city vs small town battle is very much a match-up highlighting the changes in French rugby since RWC 2007. Both teams have a Puma in their starting line-up. Juan Imhoff starts on the left wing for Racing 92 while Benjamín Urdapilleta will play fly half for Castres.
Also featuring in the match will be Rodrigo Capó Ortega. The 37-year-old Uruguayan has been named on the bench for Castres. Back in 2013 Capó Ortega won the Top 14 Final with Castres. Imhoff did so with Racing 92 in 2016, playing most of the match out of position at scrum-half.
