ProD2: Pau battle back to defeat La Rochelle and maintain their push for a play-off berth

By Colin Spiro, at the Stade du Hameau
22 February 2009

Pau 20 (11) La Rochelle 19 (9)

Pau held their nerve, and their 15-match home winning streak, as they overcame promotion rivals La Rochelle 20-19 at the Stade du Hameau on Sunday afternoon.

The hosts won out after fighting back from an 11-19 deficit early in the second half in a tense match that was punctuated by six yellow cards and a red.

Three Andre Hough penalties in the final half hour secured the crucial win, but La Rochelle spurned a late opportunity to exit with the spoils when full back Benjamin Dambielle missed with a 78^th-minute kick that would have stolen the victory.

Instead, they will have to satisfy themselves with a losing bonus point after ill-discipline cost them dearly when they had the match in their control.

The turning point was Andres Bordoy’s sending off in the 58^th minute and coach Serge Milhas will be livid at his player’s profligacy.

The prop had only just returned to the fray after sitting out 10 minutes for an ill-tempered exchange with Pau hooker Lionel Campergue – which resulted in yellows for both players – when he became embroiled in an exchange of punches with fellow Argentine Jorge Garcia.

Referee Laurent Millotte had no hesitation brandishing a second yellow and the visitors – still 19-11 ahead at that point – knew they would be up against it for the closing half hour.

Hough’s subsequent penalty reduced the arrears to five before two further kicks in the closing 10 minutes secured the win as Pau made their numerical advantage tell.

The end was in direct contrast to the beginning of the half when Pau themselves had been reduced to 13 men due to Campergue and Philippe Guicherd being sin-binned in the 47^th and 49^th minutes respectively.

That lack of discipline looked to be hugely costly as La Rochelle’s Dambielle subsequently kicked his third penalty to put the hosts in the lead (12-11) for the first time in the match.

 Pro D2 table

Seven minutes later and Pau’s unbeaten home record looked under increasing pressure when centre Vincent Roux found a huge gap to race in for the visitors’ only try. Dambielle converted to open up an eight-point gap, but then came Bordoy’s sending off.

The nerve jangling and tetchy second half seemed a long way off when Pau opened the match brightly, with Hough’s torpedo boot controlling the early exchanges. The South African missed a fourth-minute penalty but was instrumental in the game’s opening try when a deft diagonal kick bounced perfectly for winger Grégory Puyo to race in after just 11 minutes.

The home side continued to dominate with captain Paul Dearlove and number eight Arnaud Epito both enjoying foraging success, but a series of frustrating fouls incurred the ref’s wrath and let La Rochelle clamber back into the match.

Dambielle and Hough exchanged penalties before both were sin-binned for killing the ball – Dambielle in the 20^th minute and Hough on 36. By then Hough had also added a calm drop-goal to put Pau 11-3 ahead, but Romain Lacoste narrowed that back to 11-6 with his 27^th-minute kick, while Dambielle returned in time to slot his side’s third penalty just three minutes before the interval.

Pau may have been disheartened after dominating for much of the first half, but they had no time to dwell on their wastefulness as the second period kicked off in a flurry of yellows that left them digging deep for inspiration.

That they found it – with the help of Bordoy’s sending off – speaks volumes of the team spirit currently surging through the squad, as you would expect from a club which has won nine out of 12 league games since the beginning of November.

This latest victory saw them usurp La Rochelle in fourth spot and kept their dreams of an end-of-season play-off berth.

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