|
At the double: Maxime Médard
Photo: Michael Paler |
| Friday 13th Aug |
|
|
|
| Stade Toulousain |
44 |
SU Agen |
24 |
| Toulon |
22 |
Bayonne |
26 |
| Biarritz |
30 |
Montpellier |
22 |
| Brive |
18 |
Racing-Métro |
23 |
| Stade Francais |
43 |
Bourgoin |
12 |
| Perpignan |
21 |
Clermont Auvergne |
13 |
| Saturday 14th Aug |
|
|
|
| La Rochelle |
22 |
Castres |
17 |
Top 14 Club by Club guide for 2010/11
Bayonne and La Rochelle were the
headline grabbers from the opening weekend of new Top 14
season.
Bayonne stunned much-fancied Toulon on
Friday with a 22-26 away win at the Stade Félix Mayol, while
on Saturday Top 14 newcomers La Rochelle beat Castres 22-17
to mark their promotion with a precious first-day win.
Bayonne debutant Yoann Huget
was the Basques' hero as he scored two tries in their
remarkable away win in Toulon.
The former Agen winger - signed to
replace Benjamin Fall - broke Toulon's hearts as the second
of his two efforts won a tense match five minutes from time,
with fellow debutant Benjamin Boyet adding the conversion to
seal the victory.
Toulon had clawed themselves back from a
3-13 deficit shortly before half-time to be leading 22-19
with just five minutes left, but Huget's dream double
condemned the much fancied hosts to their first home defeat
in more than a year.
"This is three points lost but there are
25 matches to go and plenty of points to pick up" said
Toulon head coach Philippe Saint-André afterwards.
That will be no consolation to Toulon
head coach Philippe Saint-André after another summer of
frantic (and expensive) activity in the transfer market.
"This is three points lost but there are 25 matches to go
and plenty of points to pick up" he said afterwards.
Four of those new arrivals made the
first competitive starts for Toulon, and it was one of those
- young full-back Benjamin Lapeyre - whose costly early
mistake gifted Huget his opening try after 11 minutes.
Argentine fly-half Felipe Contepomi -
playing in place of the rested Jonny Wilkinson - had already
put Toulon 3-0 up by then with a fourth-minute penalty, but
costly handling errors continued to undermine the home
team's efforts throughout.
Boyet, Contepomi's Bayonne counterpart,
took every opportunity he could to make Toulon pay for their
profligacy, adding penalties in the 27th and 32nd minutes to
his earlier conversion as Bayonne edged into a 13-3 lead.
Two late penalties eased Toulon back
into contention at the break - although still trailing 9-13
- and Contepomi added another shortly after the restart to
further narrow the gap. With Boyet temporarily off the pitch
Julien Audy - signed from Montauban in the summer - then
took over Bayonne's kicking duties to good effect with a
successful reply for the visitors.
That proved the spur Toulon needed to
re-gather their energies and a period of sustained forward
pressure inevitably brought a penalty try which Contepomi
converted to hand them a 19-16 lead with just quarter of an
hour to go.
Yet another Boyet penalty then levelled
the scores three minutes later before Contepomi looked to
have struck the winning blow with his fifth success in the
70th minute. But just when the Stade Félix Mayol began to
sense a relief-laden win their worst fears were realized
with Huget's 75th minute try.
Toulon threw everything they had at
rescuing the result in multiple last-ditch efforts, but not
even an eight-minute period of over time could help their
cause as they slipped to a four-point defeat in the
outstanding result of the opening round of matches. A
veritable Friday 13th horror show for the Cote d'Azur club,
although - as PSA pointed out - now is far too early to be
making any assumptions about the end of the season.
To add to Toulon's pain young hooker
Jean-Charles Orioli sustained a fractured cheekbone and will
be sidelined for six weeks, while second row Joselino Suta
required 14 stitches in a chin wound sustained late in the
game.
Top 14 Transfers 2010/11
La Rochelle's
22-17 home win over Castres featured three tries for
the hosts as they got their Top 14 campaign off to an
excellent start.
Castres centre Sérémaia
Bai initially put the visitors ahead with a second-minute
penalty, but the 'Maritimers' bounced back thanks to tries
from fly-half Sebastian Boboul (9th min) and scrum-half
Benjamin Ferrou (15th min), with Boboul adding one out of
two conversions.
Their 12-3 half-time
lead was cut shortly after the restart as Castres number
eight Josepha Tekori powered over on 45 minutes, but the
Samoan then undid his good work by being sin-binned for a
dangerous tackle just four minutes later. Boboul kicked the
resultant penalty to give Rochelle a five-point advantage,
and the match was sealed 15 minutes from time when veteran
winger Norman Ligairi touched down for the home team's third
try.
Summer signing Seru
Rabeni nearly added a fourth shortly after, before Cameron
McIntyre's late score for Castres briefly threatened a
last-ditch revival. Bai's conversion left it 22-17 and only
a last-gasp tackle then prevented Florian Denos stealing it
at the death after a superb kick and chase by McIntyre and
Marc Andreu appeared to tee up the full-back.
So Castres had to
settle for a defensive bonus while La Rochelle rightly
celebrated. It was a performance of courage in the face of a
largely dominated pack, but posession is only two thirds of
the law as they say.
Elsewhere, results went
largely as expected, although the two Stades - Francais and
Toulousain - will have been delighted to both rattle up more
than 40 points in their respective opening games.
Heineken Cup champions
Toulouse ran in six tries against newly promoted
SU Agen, before the latter added a late brace to briefly
threaten the free-flowing festival at a raucous Stade Ernest
Wallon.
Side-burned speedster
Maxime Médard grabbed two tries, with William Servat, Yann
David, Yannick Jauzion and Clément Poitrenaud getting the
others, to go along with David Skrela's three conversions
and two penalties.
Stade newcomers Sylvain
Nicolas and Nicolas Vergallo both made favourable
impressions on their competitive debuts, although head coach
Guy Noves will be less pleased with the way Toulouse flirted
with losing their attacking bonus after late Agen tries for
Miguel Avramovic and Romain Edmond-Samuel (his second of the
game).
Stade Francais gave new head coach Michael Cheika the
perfect start as they clocked up five tries in their
comprehensive 43-12 dismantling of Bourgoin.
Initially it was Julien
Dupuy's boot that did the damage as the former Leicester man
celebrated his first game back for Stade in more than six
months (due to suspension) with a trio of early penalties,
but then the tries began to roll in.
First up was hooker
Dimitri Szarzewski, shortly before the half-time interval,
before hulking centre Mathieu Bastareaud extended the lead
further two minutes after the re-start. Next over was new
club captain Sergio Parisse, with winger Julian Arias and
Scottish full-back Hugo Southwell also touching down before
the night was out.
Down in Perpignan,
meanwhile, last year's beaten finalists laid down an early
marker for the season as they beat champions Clermont
Auvergne 21-13 thanks to 15 points from the boot of
Jérôme Porical and a brace of drop-goals from David Mélé.
Clermont did manage the
only try of the game - almost inevitably from Fijian winger
Napolioni Nalaga - and they even had a one-man advantage for
the closing 10 minutes after Perpignan sub Guillaume
Vilaceca was red-carded. But they couldn't make it count as
they failed to repeat their play-off victory back in May,
with the last of Porical's five penalties even denying them
a defensive bonus just two minutes from time.
The only bad news for
Perpignan was an injury to hooker Charles Geli, who suffered
a sprained left knee and must undergo an MRI scan this week.
The other opening day
winners were Racing-Métro 92 and Biarritz, with the
Parisians winning 23-18 away to Brive and the Basques 30-22
at home to Montpellier.
Racing-Métro
took early control of their game at Brive thanks to a
first-minute try from fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski. The
Parisian number 10 promptly converted his own effort before
adding a 17th-minute penalty to put the visitors 10-0 up.
Fabrice Estebanez
managed to get Brive on the board with a 25th-minute kick of
his own, and when Alexis Palisson added two more penalties
it seemed the hosts could be making a comeback. But Racing
crucially pulled further clear just after the hour mark when
South African Jacques Cronje touched down for their second
try, enabling Pierre Berbizier's side to claim an excellent
early away win.
Palisson did manage to
land three more penalties for Brive in the closing six
minutes to at least earn the home side a defensive bonus,
but it was too little too late to deny Racing, who were
captained on the night by Sébastien Chabal. Fears that
Wisniewski had suffered a fractured wrist proved inaccurate
and the fly-half should be fit for duty next weekend.
The news wasn't so
hopeful for Brive scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Péjoine, who was
forced off the field after just three minutes with a knee
injury. The provisional diagnosis is a ruptured cruciate
ligament, which would rule him out for up to six months.
Biarritz were
indebted to the metronomic boot of Dimitri Yachvili as he
kicked six penalties and a conversion in their 30-22 win
against Fabien Galthié's Montpellier.
The hosts had suspended
wingers Takudzwa Ngwenya and Ilikena Bolakoro on Thursday,
and it was Philippe Bidabé - one of their replacements - who
gave Biarritz the ideal start with a sixth-minute try.
Fly-half Julien Peyrelongue added a second on 26 minutes as
the home side went on to open up a 21-3 lead by half time.
Montpellier replied
with three tries of their own after the break - through
Jean-Mathieu Alcalde, Sakiusa Matadigo and youngster
Philippe Berart - but Yachvili's six penalties ensured the
home side stayed far enough ahead to open their season with
a win despite the injury-enforced absence of Damien Traille
and Imanol Harinordoquy.
The Basques' victory
joy was short-lived, however, following news that
international prop Fabien Barcella ruptured his Achilles in
a training match on Saturday morning. The influential
front-rower is now facing a seven-month lay-off, although
club coach Laurent Rodriguez said Biarritz would not be
looking for a 'medical joker' as a replacement.
So, it all added up to
an action-packed opening weekend, with rejuvenated Stade
Francais left top of the pile and the 30-try return being
the highest in Top 14's history for the first round of
matches.
