A TRAUMATIC season in which their very existence was under threat ended in triumph for Stade Francais on Friday night when they beat Gloucester 25-17 in the Challenge Cup final - and after the match the Parisian club’s director of rugby credited that crisis with possibly playing a part.
Only two months ago, an announcement that Stade were to merge with Racing 92 stunned French rugby - and the players themselves, who had heard little or nothing about the plan. Fearing that the move would amount to a takeover by their city rivals, the Stade players agreed to strike, and within a week the merger was off.
“They had a very difficult season - they didn't know if the club was going to survive,” said Gonzalo Quesada after his players had fought back from an early 10-0 deficit at BT Murrayfield to take European rugby’s second-tier trophy. “There was a rumour of the club being taken over, so it's a huge reason for me to be proud of the players.
“Maybe the announcement about the merger was helpful in a way. It created uncertainty and it could have broken the group, but they were able to resist and they were able to do their work. And now they have created history and they will be remembered for a long time.”
While Stade had lost two finals earlier in the decade, Gloucester had won on their only previous appearance, against Edinburgh two years ago. Their defeat denied them a place in the play-offs for next season’s Champions Cup, and meant this was Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw’s last appearance for them before moving to Clermont Auvergne.
Northampton, not Gloucester, will now play Connacht in one of the semi-finals next weekend. Stade, who had already qualified for the play-offs thanks to their seventh-place finish in the Top 14, will meet Cardiff in the other. The winners will then go head to head on the last weekend of the month for the 20th and last placed in the Champions Cup, with the victors from the Northampton-Connacht tie having home advantage.
Champions Cup qualifiers 2016-17:
PRO12: Munster, Leinster, Scarlets, Ospreys, Ulster, Glasgow, Benetton Treviso.
Top 14: La Rochelle, Clermont Auvergne, Montpellier, Toulon, Castres, Racing 92.
Aviva Premiership: Wasps, Exeter, Saracens, Leicester, Bath, Harlequins.
Play-off winners.
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