Sunday evening, Stade Toulousain made short work of Stade Rochelais in the last match of the 13th day of Top 14 (60-14). Broadcast on Canal+, the channel announced this Monday that the match had achieved an audience record.
Stade Toulousain consolidated its first place in the standings after its success on Sunday evening against La Rochelle (60-14) as part of the 13th day of Top 14. A meeting totally controlled by Toulouse, which was notably able to count on Antoine Dupont in full possession of his means and back in top form with two tries scored.
A first in 11 years
The Top 14 has been broadcast for many seasons now by Canal+. On the occasion of this unifying Boxing Day match, scheduled between Christmas and New Year, the encrypted channel announced this Monday that the match had brought together an average of 1.02 million viewers in front of their television sets. Better yet for Canal+, this score constitutes a record for a regular season encrypted match, erasing an eleven-year-old record in the process. Indeed, the return to form of Antoine Dupont mixed with a start to the match with twists and turns between the two teams made it possible to attract even more viewers than what had been experienced in 2014.
With this million viewers, Canal+ also specifies that this is also a new record for the channel for a Boxing Day match. This time, the previous record dated 14 years ago. So far this season, it was the victory of Ugo Mola’s team at home against Union Bordeaux-Bègles (56-13) last October, which held the record for viewers with an average of 900,000 people. A score which was therefore clearly improved during this display on Sunday evening against La Rochelle. With this high-ranking first half of the season combined with the return to the forefront of Antoine Dupont following his injury, Stade Toulousain has all the team that could bring together a large number of supporters once again, to, perhaps, succeed in beating this new established record.
