Carizza, Imhoff are Top 14 Champions

Pumas Manuel Carizza and Juan Imhoff are French Champions. Having started for Racing 92 in this evening’s Top 14 Final against Toulon the Rosario natives contributed significantly in what was a well-earned victory as a 14-man Racing 92 side outlasted the 15-men Toulon.

Racing 92 lost their scrum half in the opening quarter. Maxime Machenaud was red carded for a dangerous tackle on Matt Giteau which forced the Parisians into moving Imhoff to scrum half.

The experiment was new for the Pumas flier but he managed to fill in very well. The switch meant Imhoff was unable to act as a finisher but he did, nevertheless, find ways to be a nuisance by making line breaks.

Imhoff played the full 80 minutes while Carizza lasted 71 minutes. Also on the field was their former national captain, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe. Corcho played openside flanker and took over the captaincy from Guilhem Guirado in the 55th minute.

Fernández Lobbe had a strong match, particularly in defense by causing turnovers. Californian Samu Manoa also started for Toulon and played exceptionally well in both the set-piece and general play. Both will be back again next season looking to go one better.

The attendance for the final established a new club world record. The 99,124 crowd smashes that of the previous best by a staggering 15,000. It is also bigger than the largest ever crowd for a Rugby World Cup match. Last September 89,267 attended Ireland vs Romania at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The fixture, though, is not the overall highest attended rugby match. That honor goes to New Zealand vs Australia from 2000. Played in Sydney the official attendance was 109,874 at the Olympic Stadium. It was downsized in time for Rugby World Cup 2003.

TOULON
Tries – M. Gorgodze, M. Mermoz
Cons – L. Halfpenny
Pens – L. Halfpenny 3
Yellow cards – X. Chiocci

RACING 92
Tries – J. Rokocoko
Pens – D. Carter 5, J. Goosen 3
Red cards – M. Machenaud

TOULON
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Josua Tuisova, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Jonathan Pélissié, 8 Steffon Armitage, 7 Juan Fernández Lobbe, 6 Mamuka Gorgodze, 5 Konstantin Mikautadze, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Guilhem Guirado (capt.), 1 Xavier Chiocci

Replacements: 16 Jean Charles Orioli, 17 Florian Fresia, 18 Romain Taofiféuna, 19 Virgile Bruni, 20 Théo Belan, 21 Delon Armitage, 22 Frédéric Michalak, 23 Manusa Saulo

RACING 92
15 Brice Dulin, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Johan Goosen, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Yannick Nyanga, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Bernard le Roux, 3 Benjamin Tameifuna, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (c), 1 Eddy Ben Arous

Replacements: 16 Camille Chat, Khatchik Vartanov, 18 Juandré Kruger, 19 Antoine Claassen, 20 Xavier Chauveau, 21 Marc Andreu, 22 Albert Vulivuli, 23 Luc Ducalcon