ACC, r5: Bayonne beat Racing for rare win; Toulon and Bourgoin carry the Top 14 flag

17 January 2010

Toulon may have slipped to a 28-9 defeat at Saracens on Thursday night, but they still top Pool 3 by a single point going into the last round of matches next weekend.

Together with Bourgoin - last year's runners-up - they remain the only two French sides with realistic hopes of making the quarter-finals.

Toulon's trip to the Guinness Premiership side was always likely to prove a tough challenge, but Toulon did at least manage to prevent Saracens from garnering the extra attacking bonus - something that could be crucial when the pool stages are completed.

Amlin Challenge Cup - Pool results and tables

Toulon now know they will go through to the quarter-final stages if they can get a bonus-point win at home to French rivals Castres, while Saracens can merely hope results go their way as they travel to Italian side Rugby Rovigo.

The key for Toulon was to prevent Saracens scoring four tries, and in that regard they were successful with the hosts' limited to just one touch down - from Justin Melck - and 23 points from the boot of fly-half Derrick Hougaard. The French outfit replied with nine points from Jonny Wilkinson, with the England No 10 landing an early drop-goal and two later penalties.

"Jonny did well. He was very good in defence. It was a difficult situation," said Toulon coach Philippe Saint-André. "The pitch was quite heavy and it was not a very high level game. He had a solid performance," added the former Sale Sharks boss.

Sarries coach Brendan Venter knew it would be a tough assignment to breach the Toulon defence four times, especially as the English side had not managed it once so far this season. Now he can only hope that Toulon slip up against Castres, but the latter have no real interest left in this competition and will be preserving their squad for the more important Top 14 battles ahead as they seek to maintain their current lofty position - they are second.

Bourgoin, meanwhile, beat Bucuresti Oaks 33-15 to move top of Pool 1 and set up a qualification showdown with Leeds Carnegie - who they travel to next weekend. Thursday's win saw the French side open up a temporary five-point gap on Leeds, with the latter travelling to play Overmach Rugby Parma on Saturday.

Bourgoin, who were runners up in this competition last season, made sure of the bonus point against Bucuresti by running in five tries, including three in a dominant first half which saw them open up a 21-0 lead.

Despite being outscored 15-12 after the break they are now in a strong position to make the knockout stages following tries from winger Albert Vulivuli, skipper Wessel Jooste a double from hooker Jean-Philippe Genevois and a penalty try.

Full-back Alberto Di Bernardo added four conversions, while Bucuresti's points came courtesy of tries from full-back Bote Botezatu and lock Valentin Ursache, with fly-half Florin Vlaicu adding a penalty and a conversion.

In the night's other game Pool 4 leaders London Wasps hammered Rugby Roma 50-16 to seal their quarter-final berth.

In the other weekend games Montpellier kissed goodbye to their last eight hopes when they lost 20-10 away to Pool 2 leaders Connacht, while Top 14 high-fliers Castres returned to winning ways with a resounding 47-0 home win over Rugby Rovigo in Pool 3.

The latter result makes no difference to Castres' chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals, but the morale-boosting win will be welcomed after their recent wobble in Top 14. Mathieu Nicolas, Romain Cabannes, Paul Bonnefond, Thomas Bouquié, Darron Nell and Thomas Sanchou all scored tries - in addition to a penalty try - while Bouquié added six conversions.

Elsewhere, SCA Albi's head coach Eric Béchu let rip with an anti-French conspiracy after his side were edged out 14-16 at home by Newcastle Falcons in Pool 5, while Montauban kept alive their slim hopes of progressing by winning 31-23 away to Petrarca Padova in the same group.

The French side ran in four tries, with flanker Alejandro Campos grabbing a couple to supplement other the scores by Adrien Figueiredo and Romain Sazy. Fly-half Cédric Coll landed four conversions and a penalty.

The other match involving French teams saw Top 14 strugglers Bayonne register a 27-14 home win against Racing-Métro 92 as they successfully began life under new head coach Christian Gajan.

Racing opened the scoring when winger Mani Vakaloa touched down after 10 minutes and the visitors maintained their five-point advantage up to the interval as Cédric Garcia (two pens) and Andrew Mehrtens (one pen, one drop-goal) traded kicks.

It was a different story after the break, however, especially following a 45th-minute yellow card for Racing prop Mehdi Merabet. Bayonne replacement David Roumieu powered over for the home side's opening try within a minute of the sin-binning, with Garcia adding the conversion to hand the hosts a 13-11 lead.

Mehrtens' second drop-goal briefly recaptured the lad for Racing soon after but Bayonne responded with two more tries - through Jean-Baptiste Peyras and Jean-Jo Marmouyet - to seal the win, with Garcia adding both conversions for good measure.

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