Heineken Cup: Unlucky
Biarritz fall to narrow defeat; Montauban devoured by Sharks
06 December 2008
Biarritz outscored hosts
Cardiff Blues by two tries to nil, but still went down 21-17
in their Pool 6 Heineken Cup clash.
The metronomic boot of
Kiwi full-back Ben Blair proved their undoing as the
competition’s leading scorer kicked five out of six penalty
attempts to rattle up another 15 points.
Biarritz put their Top
14 struggles behind them as they began the match in dynamic
fashion, taking the fight to their hosts as they put Cardiff
under early pressure. Their reward was a 19th-minute
try when Takudzwa Ngwenya broke from deep before switching
inside for international centre Damien Traille to go over in
the corner.
Julien Peyrelongue added
the conversion to put Biarritz 7-0 up as the group leaders
were shocked into action.
A Blair penalty soon
reduced the arrears but Biarritz were unlucky not to add a
second try when speedster Ngwenya knocked on after chipping
through.
Peyrelongue and Blair
then exchanged penalties before Blues fly-half Nick Robinson
dropped the first of his two crucial drop-goals.
That still left Biarritz
10-9 up at half-time, but the one-point gap was poor reward
for their opening efforts.
Cardiff emerged
reinvigorated after the break and were soon 15-10 ahead
following successful kicks from Blair (penalty) and Robinson
(drop goal). Peyrelongue was then controversially denied
three points despite television replays suggesting his
scuffed effort had crept over the crossbar.
Piqued, the Biarritz
fly-half took out his frustration by scoring the French
side’s second try of the evening as they ran back a poor 22
drop-out, adding the extras to put visitors 17-15 ahead.
But Blair’s boot again
proved their undoing with the New Zealander landing another
brace of penalties as the home side did just enough to
squeeze the win.
Biarritz tried to rally
but were denied by a series of errors, even when Cardiff
were reduced to 14 for the last five minutes following a
scuffle between Jerome Thion and Maama Molitika.
Coach Jack Isaac had
mixed emotions afterwards. “We’re disappointed not to have
won the match, but we’re glad to go home with a losing bonus
point,” he said.
“We were expecting a bit
more from the Blues, to be honest, but our defence was very
good and very aggressive, and probably forced them to play a
tighter game.”
Elsewhere, Montauban
were put to the sword in Manchester, conceding five tries as
they crashed 36-6 to Philippe Saint-Andre’s Sale Sharks in
Pool 1.
Number eight Juan-Martin
Fernandez scored two early tries as Sale made their
intentions clear, with Anitele’a Tuilagi, Eifion Roberts and
substitute David Tait adding second-half efforts as the
Guinness Premiership side eased clear.
Charlie Hodgson kicked
four out of five conversions, as well as a penalty, with
Montauban’s only reply coming from Cedric Rosalen’s boot – a
first-half drop goal and a second-half penalty.
Coach Laurent Travers
conceded Sale had proved too strong for his weakened side
but said the reverse leg would be a different proposition.
“Next week we will play
a different team and will be going all out to get the win,”
he said.
Meanwhile, over in the
European Challenge Cup, there were mixed results for
the three French sides in action.
Dax were hammered 38-0
at home to in-form London Irish, but Bourgoin and Brive both
registered wins, the latter in an 84-6 demolition of Spanish
side El Salvador.
London Irish simply
overwhelmed their hosts Dax after taking an early
lead through Sailosi Tagicakibau’s third-minute try.
Tagicakibau went on to add another score before the
interval, while Afredo Lalanne also bagged a second-half
brace as the home side wilted against the free-flowing form
of the Guinness Premiership leaders. There were further
tries for Shane Geraghty and Elvis Seveali’i as the Exiles
all but made certain of their quarter-final berth.
Bourgoin
put their Top 14 form and financial worries to the side as
they recorded an impressive 29-14 victory over the Worcester
Warriors at the Stade Pierre Rajon.
The home side got off to
the perfect start when flanker Bogdan Leonte went over for a
first-minute try – converted by Benjamin Boyet – and found
themselves 13-0 up after quarter of an hour thanks to a
brace of penalties.
Alex Grove’s 23rd-minute
try gave Worcester hope, but Bourgoin hooker Remy Vigneaux
scored the hosts’ second try just before half-time, with
Boyet again converting, as they went in 20-7 ahead at the
interval.
Worcester hooker Aleki
Lutui scored for the visitors shortly before the hour mark,
with Joe Carlisle converting, but a hat-trick of penalties
from Boyet kept Bourgoin clear as they recorded their second
win to move within a point of Worcester at the top of Pool
3.
Brive
ran in 14 tries as they overwhelmed El Salvador in Pool 4.
Norman Ligari gorged himself with four scores, while there
were also hat-tricks for Ben Johnston and Regis Bianco.
Centre Guillaume Namy
chipped in with two, as did flanker Alex Manta, while
substitute Liam Davies kicked four conversions, Scott
Spedding got two and fly-half Lachlan Mackay one.
|
