Top 14 Round 7 Wrap-Up

We’re detailing the thrills and spills, winners and losers, try scorers and goal kickers from Round 7 of France’s Top14 League

Stade Francais v Racing 92
FT = Stade Francais 9 – 13 Racing

Stade Francais and Racing 92 kicked off ‘Fan Day’ Round 7 with their traditional Parisian derby. Stade scored first thanks to a Joris Segonds penalty, and that opening 13-minute period was to be the only time the home side led all day. Racing hit back with a Chavancy try, before Segonds and Racing’s Nolann Le Garrec traded penalties before the half. Both kickers again hit the target after the break with only 6 points hitting the scoreboard throughout the whole second period. The Jean-Bouin crowd may have been a hostile environment for the visitors, but they had the last laugh as they secured a 9-13 away victory to help celebrate the 250 th Top14 Juan Imhoff appearance.

Clermont v Toulon
FT = Clermont 27 – 30 Toulon
The build-up to the game centred largely around the retirement of Welsh and Rugby Lock legend, Alun Wyn Jones, yet the match itself didn’t disappoint either. It was Clermont who started brighter going into the main break 14-13 up thanks to 2 converted tries. The visitors 13 points came courtesy of forward pressure that led to a brace of Noah Lolesio penalties and the first of Jules Coulon’s tries. The second half was a clash of playing styles with ASM making over 450m with ball after contact, whilst RCT’s defence kept them very much in the match. Despite a try from Killian Tixeront and goals from the boot of Fly-Half, Urdapilleta, the greatest round of applause was saved for AWJ who received a standing ovation when he
left the field after 66 minutes. However, that was short-lived, as he laced up again to play out the final 2 minutes at Full-Back. And what a couple of minutes it proved to be for Toulon as a beautifully weighted Serin grubber-kick found Jiuta on the wing who went over in the final moment to hand RCT the eventual win. Lolesio added the extras in his own last Northern Hemisphere match.

Oyonnax v Lyon
FT = Oyonnax 38 – 20 Lyon
The first half against Lyon was one of the most prolific performances in Oyonnax’s history! It was already all over at the main break with the side recording a 30-3 lead courtesy of monstrous forward dominance and slick backline play spearheaded by Fly-Half Domingo Miotti. The no.10 was the top scorer for Round 7 with a personal haul of 18 points- he’d already notched 6 before Lyon even managed to hit the scoreboard for the first and last time of the half, at the 16-minute mark. From that moment on, until the mid-whistle, Oyonnax piled on 3 tries; a brace to Theo Millet and a solo effort from Prop and Captain Thomas Raynaud. Miotti was on target at Charles-Mathom Stadium to accrue another 9 points. It was however Lyon who came out the changerooms firing with their own set of 3 tries; Jordan Taufa on his grand return, Niniashvili and Gouzou. Yet the Wolves’ 30-15 comeback wasn’t to be with Oyonnax’s Pedro Bettencourt scoring a final 80 th minute try…on his Birthday no less!

Perpignan v Montpellier
FT = Perpignan 23 – 16 Montpellier
This was a battle of the basement dwellers with Perpignan handing Montpellier another loss, and, lifting themselves from the bottom of the standings. The difference between the sides was a 2 v 1 try count favouring Perpignan, and ill-discipline by the visitors which saw them play over 6 minutes with a 2-man disadvantage. MHR’s Italian International Garbisi struck 2 first half goals to go with a Julien Tisseron try that came from a high tackle on Cobus Reinach. Fellow Italian kicker, Tommaso Allan, landed 3 goals of his own along with a Perpignan Penalty Try on the half-time siren. The second period started brighter for Montpellier when Garbisi hit another brace of penalties, but the 16-16 draw with 10 minutes remaining was to be broken by the Catalan outfit. Crossdale pounced on a cross-kick and dove over to secure a much-needed victory for them. The loss has since led to the departure of MHR’s Coaching team; the appointment of Patrice Collazo as new Head Coach; and the arrival of supremo, Bernard Laporte.

Bayonne v Pau
FT = Bayonne 35 – 16 Pau
Bayonne showed up in a major way as they handed previously top-of-the-table Pau a mammoth 35-16 defeat. Joe Simmonds gave the visiting side an early 6-0 lead inside as many minutes, but that was to be their final score for over 40 minutes until Samuel Ezeala crossed the whitewash 7-minutes into the second half. Contrary, Pusa Baiona rang out all afternoon at Stade Jean-Dauger as Bayonne recorded 17 first half points thanks to tries from Lucas Paulos and Pierre Huguet, plus an additional 7 points from Camille Lopez’s prized boot. The second half was much the same with L’Aviron hitting 2 more 5-pointers from Italian, Mori, and then Guillame Rouet who was deservedly rewarded for his tireless work in the tight. As if the cake didn’t need anymore icing, Aprasidze struck a 50m penalty after the final whistle to rub salt into Pau’s wounds and hand the Vert et Blanc just their second loss
of the season.

Castres v Toulouse
FT = Castres 31 – 23 Toulouse
Home side Castres opened proceedings with a Pierre Popelin penalty on the 15-minute mark, and never relinquished that lead. They added first half points from last seasons ProD2 top try scorer, Nathaniel Hulleu, with Popelin adding the extras for a 10-9 advantage.  Toulouse couldn’t break down the CO defence and had to make do with a trio of Ramos penalties. The second period started out all Castres who notched another 2 converted tries (and a Yellow Card to Nakarawa), before ST managed to settle for a Penalty Try with only a quarter of the match to go. The visitors put more pressure on CO when Cramont crossed the whitewash to have his side trail by just 3 points (26-23), with 15 minutes remaining. However, even a Losing Bonus Point wasn’t to be for Le Rouge et Noir who had it snuffed out just prior to the concluding whistle when Castres struck with their 4 th try of the evening.

La Rochelle v Bordeaux
FT = La Rochelle 25 - 21 Bordeaux
Similarly to last week, La Rochelle came from behind to pull off a home victory. It was Bordeaux who hit the scoreboard first through Jalibert, who’s 3 penalties accounted for 100% of his sides half-time haul. His French understudy, Hastoy, kicked his own 20th minute penalty whilst La Rochelle teammate and Hooker Bourgarit crossed for the first of his tries that day. UBB stacked on the points right after the break; quickly running out to an 8-21 lead courtesy of tries from young Outside-Centre sensation Depoortere who skinned Teddy Thomas down the touchline, whilst veteran Damien Penaud scored his first try in the Burgandy. ROG’s side weren’t done with yet and pulled out their fighting spirit when Seuteni and Bourgarit- again!- crossed the whitewash. Les Maritimes Round 6 hero, Hugo Reus, was again cool as ice, slotting both conversions to hand his side a 69 th minute 1 point 22-21 advantage. A tense last 10 minutes saw La Rochelle awarded a final penalty which
resulted in another much-needed victory for them.