T14: Castres thrash Biarritz to claim outright lead; Wilkinson's boot sinks Stade Francais

28 November 2009

Castres have claimed the outright lead of Top 14 after thrashing a disappointing Biarritz 34-6 at the Stade Pierre Antoine.

Tries from Matthieu Nicolas, Yoan Audrin and Ibrahim Diarra added to 16 points from the boot of full-back Romain Teulet as the home side racked up their second successive five-pointer, following last week’s 30-10 demolition of Stade Toulousain.

This latest victory was their ninth in 14 league games and saw them move five points clear of defending champions Perpignan, who will not be in action this weekend after their away match at Bayonne was cancelled due to yet another outbreak of the H1NI (swine flu) virus.

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Teulet had outscored Biarritz’s Dimitri Yachvili by four penalties to two before tries either side of half time from Nicolas and Audrin saw the hosts pull 24-6 clear. Yachvili’s 51^st-minute yellow confirmed Biarritz’s woes and Castres then confirmed their superiority with Diarra’s try on the hour as they sealed their bonus-point win.

Former All Black Chris Masoe enjoyed another excellent game for the division’s pace-setters and their scoring was completed when replacement Thomas Bouque sent over a last-minute penalty to round off another excellent home win for the men of Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit.

With just three defeats in 14 games they are deservedly top of the pile, especially after a run of games which has seen them take on Perpignan, Clermont Auvergne, Stade Toulousain and Biarritz in successive rounds.

It also completed a notable league double over the Basques following their opening-day victory in Biarritz.

Elsewhere on Friday, Jonny Wilkinson kicked 17 points as Toulon beat Stade Francais 22-18 in Paris to claim third spot in Top 14.

The returning England fly-half notched four penalties, a drop-goal and a conversion as Philippe Saint-André’s team rallied from 11-3 down to inflict Stade’s third home defeat of the season.

The Parisians had started positively enough with former Newcastle winger Ollie Phillips scooting over for the game’s opening try after just two minutes. His latest score continued a rich vein of form for Phillips as he touched down for his fourth try in eight league matches - and his fifth overall for Stade this season - but for the second week in succession it ultimately proved in a losing cause.

Fly-half Noel Oelschig was off target with his conversion attempt, allowing Wilkinson to narrow the gap to two points when he slotted a seventh-minute penalty in reply.

These two sides had drawn 22-22 in Toulon on the opening day of the season and it was clear this would be another close battle as Stade attempted to overcome the handicap of missing upwards of 15 players due to injuries and international calls. They even handed a Top 14 debut to former Nottingham youngster Charlie Davies, with the 19-year-old getting a rare start at scrum-half.

Oelschig kicked six more points – via a drop-goal and penalty – to push Stade 11-3 ahead but with half-time approaching Toulon got reward for a determined forward effort when winger Christian Loamanu touched down in the corner. Wilkinson added the conversion and then snuck over an opportunistic drop-goal with the final touch of the half as Toulon went in 13-11 ahead.

The England fly-half was temporarily dazed after a bruising encounter with Stade centre Mathieu Bastareaud, but the 30-year-old subsequently regathered his composure sufficiently to extend Toulon’s lead four minutes later with his second penalty success of the evening.

Stade replied with mounting goal-line pressure and it was no surprise when Bastareaud eventually piled over to bring the scores level after 52 minutes. Oelschig’s corner conversion saw the hosts edge ahead but Wilkinson wasn’t done yet and landed two more penalties (in the 58^th and 75^th minutes) as Toulon battled back for another landmark victory.

The Parisians pushed desperately for a late match-saving score but Loamanu’s kast-minute tackle of Julien Arias proved just enough to prevent the replacement winger touching down in the corner in the final minute of a pulsating match.

Saint-André was understandably delighted with the result at the final whistle, but Stade’s latest reverse means they have now won just one of their last four league games, and that was a hard-fought 23-18 home victory against basement club SCA Albi.

The latter were also in action on Friday night and managed to claim a defensive bonus point after narrowly losing 9-6 away to Racing-Métro 92.

The kickers grabbed all the points in a generally disappointing game, with Racing’s All Black veteran Andrew Mehrtens claiming three successful penalties on his recall to the Paris side.

Fellow Kiwi Blair Stewart replied with his own brace for Albi, but Racing did just enough to earn their sixth successive league win which saw them leapfrog Paris rivals Stade Francais and climb to sixth position.

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