Toulon power past Castres and into Top 14 semi-final
Castres had kept the home side on their toes in an evenly-matched first half, with only two points the difference in Toulon's favour at half-time.
But they were swept aside after the break, with Jaminet's 50th minute try opening the floodgates for touchdowns from Baptiste Serin, Facundo Isa, Ben White, Ma'a Nonu and Jiuta Wainiqolo.
On Friday, Bayonne crushed Clermont with a dominant 20-3 win in the first play-off to set up a semi-final showdown with reigning record 23-time champions Toulouse.
Returning to the knock-out stage of the French championship for the first time in 33 years, Bayonne mastered the wet conditions best to remain undefeated at home this season.
Clermont, champions in 2010 and 2017, never got into the game which was played in stormy weather with persistent rain preventing play from developing.
Bayonne face Toulouse next Friday in Lyon, with Toulon taking on Bordeaux-Begles 24 hours later.
The Top 14 final takes place on June 28 in Paris.
Tommaso Allan booted a late penalty earlier Saturday as Perpignan preserved their Top 14 spot by beating Grenoble, losers in French rugby's second-division final, 13-11 in a promotion playoff.
In a tense game of repeated lead changes, Romain Trouilloud had booted the hosts ahead with sixth minutes to play. The Perpignan pack forced one last penalty and Allan converted.
Perpignan had finished 13th out of the 14 teams in the top flight to give themselves one more chance, away to the losers of the D2 final.
Grenoble topped D2 but had lost the final of the six-team playoff for the third time to force them into another do-or-die match.
The defeat also marked the second time in three years that Perpignan had beaten Grenoble in the playoff.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
7 hours ago
- LeMonde
French swimmer Maxime Grousset clinches third world title in butterfly
Léon Marchand is not the only athlete to thrill French swimming fans. At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Maxime Grousset went largely unnoticed – he did not win any individual medals. However, the World Swimming Championships in Singapore have brought him back into the spotlight as the second main figure in French swimming, nearly on par with "King Léon." Earlier in the week, "Max'" had set the French team in motion by winning the 50m butterfly, his second world title after the 100m butterfly in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2023. The third title came soon after, just five days later, as he won another 100m butterfly final, setting new French and European records (49.62 seconds) on Saturday, August 2. He finished just ahead of his friend, Switzerland's Noè Ponti (second, 49.83 seconds), and Canadian athlete Ilya Kharun (third, 50.07 seconds). Grousset, the distance's second-best performer of all time, became the first French swimmer to swim the 100m butterfly in under 50 seconds. "What did I just do? That's crazy!" he said, looking ecstatic after his race. "He set the pace for the others from the very start of the race; he had already partly won. He raced like a boss," said Denis Auguin, national technical director of the French Swimming Federation (FFN), immediately after the race.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
French prosecutors seek trial for PSG's Achraf Hakimi over rape charge
French prosecutors on Friday, August 1, called for Paris Saint-Germain star Achraf Hakimi to face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Moroccan international denies. The Nanterre prosecutor's office told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that they had requested that the investigating judge refer the rape charge to a criminal court. "It is now up to the investigating magistrate to make a decision within the framework of his order," the prosecutor's office told AFP in a statement. Hakimi, 26, played a major role in PSG's run to their first Champions League title, the full-back scoring the opener in the 5-0 rout of Inter Milan in the final in May. Hakimi, who helped Morocco to their historic run to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup, was charged in March 2023 with raping a 24-year-old woman. Hakimi allegedly paid for his accuser to travel to his home on February 25, 2023, in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt while his wife and children were away on holiday. On the night in question she said she had traveled to his house in d by police. Although the woman refused to make a formal accusation, prosecutors decided to press charges against the player. She told police at the time that she had met Hakimi in January 2023 on Instagram. Contacted by AFP after Friday's development, Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the night in question she said she had travelled to his house in a taxi paid for by Hakimi. She told police Hakimi had started kissing her and making non consensual sexual advances, before raping her, a police source told AFP at the time. She said she managed to break free to text a friend who came to pick her up. Contacted by AFP after Friday's development Hakimi's lawyer Fanny Colin described the call by prosecutors for a trial as "incomprehensible and senseless in light of the case's elements". "If these requisitions were to be followed, we would obviously pursue all avenues of appeal," she added. "My client welcomes this news with immense relief," Rachel-Flore Pardo, the lawyer representing the woman, told AFP.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
Squiban wins her second consecutive stage victory in the women's Tour de France
French rider Maëva Squiban claimed a back-to-back double in the women's Tour de France by winning stage 7 on Friday, August 1, a day after her first breakaway stage victory. Mauritian Kim Le Court-Pienaar held on to the overall lead as the nine-day race heads into Saturday's stage 8, the first of two Alpine runs taking in two ascents and finishing atop the Col de la Madeleine at 2000 meters. The 23-year-old Squiban attacked from distance on the hilly 159.7-kilometer stage from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry in a carbon copy of her first stage win, while her compatriot Cedrine Kerbaol and American Ruth Edwards rounded out the podium. Squiban broke away two kilometers from the summit of the Col du Granier, later claiming she had been joking when she went. "I jokingly said I would attack at the start. In the end, it wasn't a joke," she said. In the overall standings on the eve of the queen stage, the penultimate of this 2025 edition, Le Court has a 26-second lead over Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and a 30-second margin over defending champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma.
