Stade Toulousain’s Heineken Cup hopefuls have been told they
must play some part in
Saturday’s Top 14 clash with Brive
if they want to appear in Cardiff the following week.
Injured trio Byron
Kelleher, David Skrela and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde are all
back in training, but head coach Guy Noves said it would be
impossible to include them against Cardiff Blues without
having had game time this weekend.
“We can’t allow
ourselves to use players who aren’t at their maximum
potential,” he confirmed.
“For Byron and
Jean-Baptiste we will se this week what they are like in
training. It’s certain they are players who are very close
to returning but we counted on Kelleher last week and he had
to pull out before the Stade Francais game,” he added.
Kelleher has been
absent for two months since picking up a knee strain against
Biarritz in January and is
desperate to be fit for Heineken Cup
game. His influence at Stade Toulousain has been
huge since joining last season – a fact acknowledged by him
being named Top 14’s 2008 Player of the Year.
Top 14 Table
/ Top 14 Fixtures
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Heineken Cup Fixtures
He has already scored
seven tries for the club this season and is something of an
on-field enforcer for Noves.
But the coach’s
cautionary stance is understandable given the immensity of
the occasion – a win or bust Heineken Cup quarter-final at
the Millennium Stadium – but it is probably not what
Saturday’s opponents Brive wanted to hear.
They may have been hoping for a weakened Stade Toulousain
side as they rested players ahead of their crucial cup
match.
But at least they won’t
have to face ferocious flanker Thierry Dusautoir, who is
definitely being given time off after a draining Six Nations
campaign.
Fellow French
international Yannick Jauzion, meanwhile, believes the
club’s high-profile build-up to Cardiff – playing Stade
Francais and Brive on consecutive weekends – will stand them
in good stead for the quarter-final.
Jauzion, who played as
an emergency fly-half against Stade Francais after Skrela’s
late withdrawal, said the Stade Francais match had been
“very good preparation” for Cardiff.
“It was a tough game
and there was a lot of intensity from both sides. We really
had to fight to win,” he told Rugbyrama.com. “Next
weekend’s away trip to Brive will also be good for us. Brive
are currently in very good form and they will not be easy to
beat in front of their supporters. It’s always good for the
team to play high level games before a Heineken Cup
quarter-final.”
The Top 14 leaders have
also received a boost with news that prop Benoit Lecouls,
who went off injured against Stade Francais on Sunday, has
been given the all clear after further examinations of his
shoulder. Noves confirmed it was “just a big bruise” and
that the French international had been cleared to resume
playing.
It’s likely he will sit
out the Brive though as a precaution against further injury.
