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The Top 14 is back, Sunday night rugby is back, and Tommaso Menoncello has arrived. On Sunday 6 September at Marcel-Deflandre the Italian centre made his Toulouse debut and needed less than a half to score his first try. The party didn’t last: La Rochelle came back from 10-24 down to win 30-27 with an Antoine Hastoy penalty after the siren.
The debut try
Menoncello’s night lit up early. A short ball off Antoine Dupont’s phase, the Italian bursts through the first tackle, then changes his running line twice to sit defenders down and reaches the line. It was Toulouse’s first try of the game and, for anyone watching from Italy, confirmation of something DANPAT Rugby has been saying for months: Menoncello is a Toulouse player.
The champions’ first half was close to perfect. After the hosts’ early lead came Menoncello’s try, a power score from Emmanuel Meafou off a lineout drive and one for Romain Ntamack from a quick scrum move via Dupont and Roumat. Thomas Ramos converted all three and added a penalty: 24-10 at the break.
Why did Toulouse lose?
Because they switched off after half-time: too many errors, no fluidity and an unrecognisable Dupont, while Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle kept hammering until they levelled and then punished a final indiscipline with Hastoy’s kick after the siren.
The comeback ran through a Nolann Le Garrec try and a Hastoy score from a five-metre scrum, the conversion making it 27-27. Toulouse had handled being a man down after Georges-Henri Colombe’s card reasonably well, but never restored any order.
Today Toulouse were a team full of errors, full of uncertainty, full of sloppiness — starting with Antoine Dupont himself.
The captain’s evening was the real surprise: Dupont got his timing and distances wrong, threw one hospital pass and never found a rhythm. Even Ramos, usually unerring, missed a big kick late on. The one positive, in Danpat’s view, was the defensive lineout: plenty of ball stolen from a La Rochelle side that made its own share of mistakes.
Chaos at the end
The closing minutes were a blender. La Rochelle went down to fourteen after a red card for Tolu Latu, to the point that Le Garrec ended up throwing into the lineout, yet it was Toulouse who conceded the penalty that handed Hastoy the winning kick in front of the posts. Toulouse haven’t won at Deflandre since 2021, and the run goes on.
Two teams still finding their feet, an ugly, chaotic game, and a losing bonus point for Toulouse. But in France every mind is already on the 2027 World Cup: the league will be played to win a fifth straight title, the Champions Cup too, without forgetting that everything this season points to October 2027. For Menoncello, meanwhile, it’s a start to remember.
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