ACC, r4: London Wasps end Bayonne's Challenge, but Bourgoin
keep hopes alive
18 December
2009
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Mixed night: Wasps' former
France flanker Serge Betsen
Photo: Michael Paler |
| ACC, r4 |
|
|
|
| Bourgoin |
31 |
Rugby Parma |
10 |
| Bayonne |
3 |
London Wasps |
12 |
Bayonne's hopes of rescuing a troubled season with a
European cup run were dashed by London Wasps on
Thursday evening as the French side lost 3-12 at home to
effectively end their interest in this year's Amlin
Challenge Cup.
Wasps'
win made it double joy for the London club - following last
weekend's 22-18 home victory - and means they are now seven
points clear in Pool 4 and obvious favourites to claim a
quarter-final berth.
Bayonne,
meanwhile, must now re-focus all of their energies on Top 14
survival as they seek to make up for a woeful first half to
the season. The Basques are currently 13th in the French
league and in serious danger of being relegated to ProD2 if
they don't halt their slide. They have now lost six of their
last seven games - as well as six of their last seven league
games - and the recent change of head coach (with Thierry
Mentières taking over from Richard Dourthe - does not appear
to have stopped the rot.
Amlin Challenge Cup - Pool results
and tables
Thursday's match was a must-win game if they hoped to
progress in the ACC but they came unstuck as Wasps' fly-half
Dave Walder kicked the visitors to victory. Walder landed a
brace of first-half penalties to put the visitors 6-0 up at
the interval, and he subsequently added a third penalty and
a drop-goal to complete the win after the break.
Wasps'
victory was based on forward dominance, and they even
managed to overcome the temporary loss of two players as
both Serge Betsen and George Skivington were yellow carded -
in the 38th and 51st minutes respectively. It was a mixed
night for Betsen, the former France international and
Biarritz flanker, but it certainly ended happily enough for
the Wasps captain.
Bayonne's only response came via a Cédric Garcia penalty
midway through the second half.
It was a different story for fellow Top 14
strugglers Bourgoin, however, as they ran in five
tries to secure a 31-10 bonus-point home win against
Rugby Parma.
The
victory lifted them top of Pool 1, five points ahead of
Leeds Carnegie, who are at home to Bucuresti Oaks on Sunday.
It now looks like the group will go down to the wire with
Bourgoin's final match away to Leeds likely to decide which
club goes on to the quarter-finals.
Argentine centre Matias Viazzo got the scoreboard ticking
when he touched down for the game's opening try after just
two minutes, and the hosts were 14-0 ahead within 10 minutes
following a further try from prop Sylvain Charlet. Fly-half
Benjamin Boyet was on target with both conversions, and
Parma's already difficult task was made even harder when
hooker Alvaro Tejeda was yellow-carded in the 12th minute.
But
Bourgoin only added one more try before half time, with
22-year-old full-back Mael Moinot going over in the 20th
minute. Boyet again added the extras, before Parma finally
registered their first points courtesy of Francesco
Mazzariol's 30th-minute penalty.
Visiting
flanker Francesco Minto became the second Parma player to
see yellow - just two minutes after the resumption - but the
Italian side temporarily narrowed the gap further when
winger Ignacio Martin scored a 66th-minute try, which
Mazzariol converted.
The try
galvanised Bourgoin into action again and, amid a flurry of
substitutions, they managed two more scores before the end
with Jean-Francois Coux and Coenraad Basson both going over
in the final 12 minutes.
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