ACC, r1: Montpellier, Toulon and Montauban win away as French teams start strongly

10 October 2009

Montpellier, Toulon and Montauban all recorded crucial away victories as French teams flourished in the opening round of Amlin Challenge Cup matches. There were also home wins for Bayonne and Bourgoin – last year’s runners-up – as European competition returned to the calendar.

Indeed, of France’s seven representatives to have played so far – Racing-Métro 92 are away to London Wasps on Sunday – only two suffered defeats, and both of those were in all Top 14 clashes as SCA Albi went down to Montauban and Castres crashed to Toulon.

The results were in stark contrast to those on the corresponding weekend last season, when only two French teams won, and will give the league a further boost as it seeks to make up for last year's European disappointments.

Amlin Challenge Cup - Pool results and tables

Of all the results it was Montpellier’s 22-17 away win at Worcester that caught the eye most, with the struggling Top 14 outfit pulling off a shock result at Sixways that few expected against the Guinness Premiership side.

Worcester were semi-finalists in this competition last year and had openly talked about going a stage further this season as they put out a virtual full strength starting XV.  An opening home match against the side currently 13^th in Top 14 and without a single win on the road appeared an ideal start for the English outfit, especially with Montpol resting their internationals and showing 13 changes in all from the team which lost 12-30 at home to Stade Toulousain at the weekend.

But the French side belied their previous form, and the players’ inexperience, with a performance that even surprised Man-of-the-Match Ollie Smith, the ex-England international who had an outstanding game in the centres.

'We shocked ourselves' - Ollie Smith

“I think we shocked ourselves and some of the coaches and board members by actually winning,” he admitted after Thursday evening’s win. “We had a pretty inexperienced team and it maybe played into our hands a little bit that we were apprehensive before the game. There were a lot of young lads that came in and they really fronted up,” added the former Leicester Tigers player.

The visitors were 15-10 up half-time thanks to four penalties from Argentine fly-half Federico Todeschini and another from South African full-back Jacques Schutte, and they surged further ahead when Florian Nicot ran in a second-half interception try just eight minutes after the restart. The 23-year-old French centre eagerly latched on to Joey Carlisle’s floated pass to cruise in from the halfway line, with Thomas adding the conversion.

Smith, 27, believes the result could prove the catalyst which finally kick-starts Montpellier's season, giving them renewed confidence in Top 14 as well as a genuine opportunity to progress on the European stage.

“This was possibly our toughest Amlin Challenge Cup match on paper, although I’ve never been to Connacht and I’m sure it’s a very difficult place to play. We’ve now got a good opportunity to try and sneak through to the quarter-finals,” he said.

A home win against Connacht next weekend would certainly go a long way towards achieving that goal, especially after the Irish side pulverised Olympus Rugby XV Madrid 46-6 on Friday evening in the other Pool 2 match.

Montauban will also fancy their chances of progressing after winning 17-7 at SCA Albi in their opening Pool 5 clash as Marc Raynaud’s men proved too strong for Top 14’s basement club.

The weekend’s other away victors were Toulon, who triumphed 33-17 at Castres less than a week after losing 21-19 at the same venue in Top 14. Both sides were much changed from that encounter, but the result confirmed Toulon’s greater strength in depth as two tries from former rugby league star Luke Rooney – given a rare start at full-back – set them on their way.

The visitors were trailing 14-13 at half-time after Castres’ Josefa Tekori and Cameron McIntyre both  touched down in the opening period. The hosts are currently flying high in second place in Top 14, but their recent run of six games in three weeks appeared to take its toll as they faded after the interval.

Rooney’s first try narrowed the gap before the break, with his second – six minutes after the restart – confirming Toulon’s superiority as Philippe Saint-André’s team rallied in the latter stages. Australian scrum-half Matt Henjak added the visitors’ third try just after the hour mark, and England international Tom May also got on the scoresheet with a rare drop-goal.

The powerful second-half performance was orchestrated by Jonny Wilkinson’s stand in at fly-half Sebastien Fauqué, with the Toulon No 10 landing three conversions, a penalty and a drop-goal to claim 12 points on the night.

Bourgoin, last season’s runners-up, also began with a solid win, beating Guinness Premiership side Leeds Carnegie 29-19 at the Stade Pierre Rajon in Pool 1.

The hosts blew away Leeds with a 23-point first half that included tries from Rudi Coetzee and David Janin, along with 13 points from Argentine fly-half Alberto Di Bernardo – against the side he left during the summer.

Replacement fly-half Benjamin Boyet added a brace of penalties after the break, with Leeds’ sole try coming from Alfie Tooala.

Bayonne were France’s other winners on Friday night, with the Basques running in nine unanswered tries as they crushed Rugby Roma 61-3 at the Stade Jean Dauger in Pool 4.

Winger Clement Lagain and centre Vincent Inigo scored two tries apiece, with the others coming from Julien Puricelli, Manny Edmonds, Jean-Baptiste Peyras, Pierre Bernard and Guillaume Bernad. Scrum-half Edmonds also kicked eight of the nine conversions to end with a match haul of 21 points.

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