Top 14 - Round 2 Review - Stade Francais and Toulouse fight back for narrow wins

30 August 2008

Stade Francais 27 Mont-de-Marsan 22

Clermont 43 Montpellier 20

Bayonne 22 Montauban 20

Toulouse 32 Dax 25

Toulon 3 Brive 3
Biarritz 32 Castres 17

Bourgoin 16 Perpignan 22

What is going on in Top14 this season? Is it the balmy summer heat, the influx of foreigners (205 and counting), or merely a levelling of the playing field due to early season rustiness? Whatever it is it’s making for a fascinating start with round one’s surprise defeats for Toulouse and Clermont being followed by a rollercoaster afternoon on Saturday that saw Stade Francais and Toulouse come within a whisker of humiliating home defeats in round two.

Superior power finally told with both clubs coming from behind to register wins but newly-promoted Mont-de-Marsan gave their Paris hosts a hell of a shock before eventually succumbing 27-22, while Dax went down 32-25 at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.

Les Montois were leading in Paris until the 68^th minute courtesy of Ben Arrayet’s boot and Marc Giraud’s 47^th-minute try, but the match turned during a hectic ten-minute phase on the hour mark.

First Pierre Rabadan touched down for the hosts in the 60^th minute to reduce the lead, and that was quickly followed by a crucial yellow card for Romain Delmas five minutes later. Mirco Bergamasco slotted the resulting penalty to further reduce the deficit to 17-19, and three minutes after that fellow Italian Sergio Parisse crossed for his third try of the season to give the home side the lead for the first time in the match.

Bergamasco added the conversion to break Les Montois’ hearts and a missed 73^rd-minute penalty by Yannick Lafforgue was probably the visitors’ final chance to cause an upset.

Bergamasco completed his fifth successful penalty two minutes later to seal the result, although Lafforgue did add a last-minute kick to ensure Mont-de-Marsan didn’t go home empty handed.

It was a mighty scare for the early leaders and Les Montois will be boosted by such an excellent performance.

Down in Toulouse lowly Dax were also in line for an away-day shock as they led the defending champions 16-17 ten minutes into the second half.

Toulouse dominated the early proceedings but the score was 3-3 before Charles Gimenez opened the try account in the 29^th minute to give Stade the lead, with Mathieu Belie kicking the conversion to extend the advantage.

But just when you expected the champions to make their dominance count wing Lucas Borges broke free and sprinted in from 50 metres just two minutes later and David Bortolussi kicked the conversion to level the scores.

Belie added a brace of penalties either side of half-time to re-establish Toulouse’s lead but an upset became a distinct possibility when South Africa Jannie Bornman scored Dax’s second try in the 50^th minute and Bortolussi converted to give the visitors a 16-17 advantage.

Sadly for Dax that was as good as it got as Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde, on as a second-half replacement, added four penalties to ease the home side clear, but Dax will take plenty of encouragement, and a defensive bonus point, from such a spirited display.

Clermont ran in six tries at home to Montpellier as they banished memories of their opening-day defeat at Toulon. Napolioni Nalaga, Marius Joubert and Brock James added second-half scores to three in the first-half by Benoit Cabello, Alexandre Audebert and Benoit Baby, with Sylvain Mirande and Olivier Sarramea both touching down for Montpellier after the interval.

Bayonne showed their mental (and physical) strength by recording another narrow win to make it two out of two for the Basque club. Following their opening 27-26 win at Castres they opted for double the advantage this time, beating Montauban 22-20 at home thanks to an outstanding individual display from Manuel Edmonds, who scored all of their points. The Australian added five penalties and a conversion to his 31^st-minute try, only just outshining Montauban’s Fabien Fortassin, who scored a try, two penalties and conversion for the visitors.

Elsewhere, Top 14 newcomers Toulon were held 3-3 at home by a determined Brive, with all six points coming in the opening eight minutes as Andy Goode cancelled out Sebastien Fauque's penalty.

A last-minute try by Adrien Plante earned Perpignan a thrilling 16-22 away win a topsy-turvy match at Bourgoin.
The hosts opened the scoring when Thomas Genevois touched down after 13 minutes but Perpignan hit back with two Nicolas Laharrague penalties and Philip Berger's 32nd-minute try to lead 7-11 at the interval.
Benjamin Boyet then kicked a brace of penalties for Bourgoin in the opening eight minutes of the second half to briefly re-establish the lead, before Laharrague answered in kind shortly after as Perpignan pressed.

A 60th minute penalty from second-half replacement Morgan Parra again gave the initiative back to the home side (16-14) but the Catalans weren't finished yet and edged in front through a Meyer kick before Plante completed the victory with his last-gasp try.

The win left Perpignan level on points with second-placed Biarritz, who had earlier beaten Castres 32-17 with American winger Takudzwa Ngwenya scoring a brace of tries for the second week running.

Castres answered in kind with scores from fellow American Salesi Silka and Russian Krill Koulemine during an entertaining first-half, which ended 19-17 in the home side's favour, before Fijian wing Ilikena Bolakoro added the home side's decisive third try six minutes into the second half.

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