TOP 14 FINAL - Tou v Tou

Currently 18-12 to Toulouse.

78 minutes and it comes to life

Catch and drive from RCT and they flood in but great defence from Toulouse

Ball goes wide and is split but, from the resulting scrum, Toulouse make a # of it and knock on

5m scrum to RCT and the clock goes red,

Free-kick to RCT and they tap, drive, pick, drive. It's not going wide (81:15)

Set and drive, and again (82:00)

82:15 knock on and that's it

240 minutes (Semi's and Final) - no tries

Semi's and final all very poor adverts for the Top 14, which by the way the French want to sacrifice the Heineken Cup for - think its time they get real.

Artful you've completely missed the point of the French protest. They don't want to sacrifice the HEC they want to take more money from it and increase the strength of the Amlin by funnelling some if the weaker Rabo teams into it. There's also the introduction if a third tier competition to develop smaller leagues.

The French teams seem more desperate to avoid defeat than anything else, there's so much on the line due to the finances involved. It doesn't make for great games of rugby at times. Sadly those times seem to include this years playoffs.

I'm well aware that money is the main incentive for the French, but that doesn't come close to explaining just how conservative the Top 14 has become, some of the best teams in it still whip it out wide, others don't.