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by Colin Spiro 27
September 2008
 Bourgoin
(13) 25 Stade Francais (26) 32, at the Stade des Alpes
Runaway leaders Stade Francais survived an early scare to
make it six wins out of six after an attack-oriented match
played at Grenoble FC's Stade des Alpes.
The home side shocked Stade into action after
a stray Sergio Parisse pass was intercepted by winger Rudi
Coetzee for a firth-minute try, which Sebastien Laloo
converted.
Lionel Beauxis replied almost immediately
with the first of his three penalties before
man-of-the-moment Juan Martin Hernandez made a half-break
and released Julien Arias to race through. Beauxis duly
converted to make it 7-10 to the visitors, an advantage he
extended further when slotting his second penalty on the
quarter-hour mark.
When Hernandez added a 40 metre drop-goal shortly after it
appeared the leaders, who have been averaging 28 points per
game, were heading for another easy win, but Laloo bagged a
rapid brace of three-pointers himself to reduce the deficit
to 13-16 with 24 minutes gone.
Beauxis emulated team-mate Hernandez with his
own drop-goal four minutes before the interval but the
crucial score came immediately after when Australian rugby
league convert Mark Gasnier touched down on his debut after
a fluent move through Francais' ever-dangerous backs.
Beauxis added the two points to stretch Stade's half-time
lead to 13-26, a big enough cushion for the Paris club to
ease off after the break without ever allowing the home side
to seriously threaten.
Laloo did succeed with two out of three more
penalty attempts, narrowing the gap to seven points with 20
minutes to go, but Beauxis replied in kind before Hernandez
(who else?) launched another massive drop-goal to end the
fight back and ensure the capital's pace-setters kept on
track.
There was still time for one more Laloo kick
at the end - taking his evening's points tally to 17 - and
it could be crucial as it earned a defensive point, but in
truth the Paris side were never really under serious threat
in this match once Coetzee's early try had been negated.
Coach Ewen Mckenzie appears to have turned
this squad into a more ruthless and unified outfit than the
one which lost in last year's semi-finals, and with
successive home games now to come (against Montauban and
Toulouse) they are superbly placed to open up a considerable
gap at the top.
It's up to Perpignan and Bayonne - their
nearest rivals going into this weekend - to keep up the
pressure, but with the former away to Toulouse it could be
last year's champions who slowly emerge as their most
credible challengers again this year.
Meanwhile, McKenzie will be purring at the impact of Gasnier
who looked a natural in his first union match since
switching codes from NRL's St George Illawarra. Expect much
more from him as the season progresses, with talk of a
Wallaby call up not appearing so fanciful after all.
For Bourgoin:
Tries: Coetzee
Con: Laloo
Pen: Laloo 5
For Stade:
Tries: Arias, Gasnier
Con: Beauxis 2
Pen: Beauxis 3
Drop: Hernandez 2, Beauxis
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