Two unpredictable sides, jangling big-match nerves and tricky conditions were always likely to ensure a helter-skelter finale to this year’s European Challenge Cup. Trying to second-guess Gloucester has been impossible all season and, with a potential shot at qualification for next year’s Champions’ Cup also up for grabs, an evening of glorious uncertainty was the inevitable result.
Sadly for the Cherry and Whites it ultimately ended in infernal disappointment, courtesy of second-half tries from Stade’s two centres Jonathan Danty and Geoffrey Doumayrou. Gloucester could not be faulted for effort or desire but the Parisians, still motivated by the emotion of the controversial failed merger with Racing 92 that had threatened their existence, increasingly turned the screw up front to secure their first European title at the fifth attempt.
The other happy club will be Northampton Saints, whose hopes of European rugby are now still flickering as a consequence of this outcome. They will face Connacht next Saturday while everyone at Kingsholm reflects on what might have been. Gloucester had triumphed in both their previous Challenge Cup finals in 2006 and 2015 but, after a bright, adventurous first 40 minutes, the Stade pack tightened its grip to delight the pink flag-waving element of a cheerful crowd of almost 25,000.
Edinburgh had done its best to put on a party, complete with city-centre big screens, bands and even bean bags for passers-by stopping to watch. Weather-wise, unfortunately, it was not much of a night for open-air basking. The meteorological term for the chilly, damp murk rolling in off the Firth of Forth is a haar; for those trying to catch a greasy rugby ball it was not remotely a laughing matter.
That did not stop both sides trying to play positively. Gloucester may have won their semi-final against La Rochelle via a monumental defensive display but testing Stade’s fitness by keeping the ball alive was clearly among their primary objectives. Stade, for their part, are perpetually dangerous when the great Sergio Parisse is on the charge. This was never destined to be a stale, one-dimensional boreathon.
And so it proved. With the French in increasingly confident mode, Parisse flipped the ball behind his back to Jules Plisson only for Danty to throw a careless pass straight to the lurking Jonny May. The winger has been in rich late-season form and was never going to be caught from 60 metres out.
When Billy Burns landed a fine long penalty to add to his conversion, the Cherry and Whites had a useful 10-0 first quarter lead, albeit undermined by the premature departure of Kiwi tight-head John Afoa with a leg problem. Gloucester’s season has been consistent only in its inconsistency but they have not always enjoyed huge luck with injuries.
What they really needed to do was keep Stade on the back foot, starve Parisse and friends of possession and seek to establish the kind of platform that would start to play on French minds. It did not turn out that way. Instead a beautifully-weighted chip from Will Genia was palmed backwards by Hugh Pyle and Parisse gleefully dropped on it to score. Suddenly the scores were tied again and when skipper Willie Heinz was sin-binned for leaping into Plisson as the fly-half put in a clearance kick it was a very different-looking ball game.
Tempers were also beginning to fray on both sides and an all-in shoving match duly broke out close to the tunnel a couple of minutes before the interval. John Lacey took a long look at the video but eventually awarded only a penalty against Lewis Ludlow for a vigorous body-slam on Genia that would have earned approving nods from most gnarled Gloucester forwards of yore.
With Scotland’s Greig Laidlaw a popular replacement for Heinz, it just required the Cherry and White pack to keep hammering away in the style of Mike Burton, John Fidler, Mike Teague et al. Increasingly, though, it developed into a retreating battle and the fractional failure of Tom Marshall to get a finger to a rolling ball in the Stade in-goal area summed up his team’s night. The powerful Danty’s crucial 57th-minute try followed shortly afterwards and Ross Moriarty’s late try was scant consolation.
Stade Bonneval; Vuidarvuwalu, Doumayrou, Danty (Sinzelle, 73), Camara; Plisson (Steyn, 67), Genia; Ven der Merwe (Zhvania, 69), Bonfils (Panis, 73), Slimani (Alo-Emile, 43), Pyle (Alberts, 67), Gabrillagues, Burban (Lakafia, 59), Ross, Parisse (capt).
Tries Parisse, Danty, Doumayrou Pens Plisson, Steyn. Cons Plisson, Steyn.
Gloucester Marshall; Sharples, Scott (Twelvetrees, 62), Atkinson (Trinder, 72), May; Burns, Heinz (capt; Laidlaw, 42); Hohneck (Thomas, 63), Hibbard (Dawidiuk, 76), Afoa (McAllister, 21), Savage (Galarza, 60), Thrush (Clarke, 75), Moriarty, Ludlow, Morgan.
Tries May, Moriarty. Pen Burns. Cons Burns 2.
Sin-bin Heinz 33
Referee J Lacey (Ireland) Att 24,594
