Top 14: Toulouse take over the lead as Stade Francais are
beaten again
01 November 2008
| Montauban 42 |
Toulon 20 |
| Castres 26 |
Montpellier 31 |
| Dax 32 |
Bourgoin 10 |
| Mont-de-Marsan 7 |
Perpignan 31 |
| Toulouse 21 |
Brive 15 |
| Clermont 22 |
Stade Francais 6 |
| Biarritz 12 |
Bayonne 14 |
Defending champions Toulouse claimed top spot for the first
time this season as they coupled their 21-15 home win
against Brive with Stade Francais’ second successive defeat,
this time away to Clermont.
It means
the red and blacks have wiped out an eight-point gap in just
two critical weeks – initiated by their 26-13 win in Paris
last Saturday – and now have the initiative going into the
crucial winter months of November and December.
Their
home win against Brive wasn’t a spectacular affair but Guy
Noves knows that flair alone will not win titles and his
star-studded side displayed admirable pragmatism as their
triumphed 21-15.
That’s
not say they played completely without panache as tries from
Tongan wing Manu Ahotaeiloa and French back row Thierry
Dusautoir proved enough to repel the spirited ‘Correziens’.
Former
Leicester fly half Andy Goode kicked all 15 points for the
visitors but Jean-Baptiste Elissalde – playing in place of
the rested Byron Kelleher – also landed three penalties for
Toulouse to ensure the home win.
Despite
that result Stade Francais could still afford to lose and
remain on top, just as long as they took a losing bonus
point at Clermont, but Les Jaunards put a spanner in the
works with their 22-6 win.
Scrum
half Pierre Mignoni got them off to the perfect start when
he dived over for a fourth-minute try after a sweeping backs
move, with Stade responding via a brace of Lionel Beauxis
penalties.
At 7-6 after 28 minutes the match was still
evenly poised, but Brock James then stepped up for the first
of four successful penalties as the home side eased
themselves remorselessly clear.
Full-back Benoit Baby added an audacious 50m drop-goal on
the hour – a Stade speciality if ever there was – and the
visitors simply had no response as they crumbled for the
second week in succession.
For
Clermont it was a blessed return to form after last week’s
25-30 home reverse by Montauban, and lifted them to fifth
place.
It would
have been fourth but for yet another upset, this time in the
Basque derby as Bayonne triumphed 14-12 in Biarritz in
Saturday’s evening match.
The
visitors recorded only their fourth win in 60 years at the
home of their nearest rivals, with centre South African wing
Sam Gerber scoring the game’s only try midway through the
second half.
A Manny
Edmonds penalty confirmed the victory shortly after, with
Biarritz limited to four penalties from the boot of
scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili.
It was
Bayonne’s fifth successive win in Top 14 and left them just
two points behind third-placed Perpignan.
The
Catalans consolidated their standing as they cruised to a
31-7 away victory at basement club Mont-de-Marsan, running
in five tries in the process to secure the bonus point.
Maxime
Mermoz, Philip Burger and Nicolas Laharrague all crossed for
first-half tries, with Farid Sid and Julien Candelon adding
further scores after the interval.
The only
bad news for Perpignan was the sight of ex-England
international Perry Freshwater being stretchered off with an
ankle injury two minutes from time.
Les
Montois did at least manage a consolation score from Ben
Coutts – only their sixth of the campaign – but with eight
defeats from nine they are now firmly adrift at the foot of
the table and looking set for a swift return to ProD2.
Fellow
strugglers Castres had the perfect opportunity to escape the
drop zone after Toulon’s Halloween horror show on Friday
night (see report), but the win they needed evaded their
grasp as they squandered a 26-14 lead with 20 minutes to go
at home to Montpellier.
It all
seemed to be going so well when tries from Thomas Sanchou
and Samoan number eight Josefa Tekori helped open up a
12-point lead, but Romain Teulet’s earlier missed penalties
came back to haunt them as they collapsed in the final
straight.
Frikkie
Welsh and Vassili Bost both scored for Montpellier as they
rattled up 17 points in just seven decisive minutes –
between the 63rd and the 70th – leaving Castres to rue a
hatful of clear openings in the first period.
Former
Leicester centre Ollie Smith scored the visitors’ other try,
midway through the first half, with Argentine Frederico
Todeschini adding two conversions and three penalties to
seal the win.
Elsewhere, Dax continued their recent good form with a 32-10
home win against Bourgoin, with fly-half Antoine
Vignau-Tuquet kicking 22 points.
There
were also tries for Argentine Frederico Martin-Aramburu and
Fijian Neumi Nanuku as Dax made it four wins from six and
climbed to a highly respectable ninth in the table.
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