French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

thomond2006

La Rochelle and Racing draw 18-18. That means La Rochelle are safe.

iroced

thomond2006 wrote: »

Two late Bayonne tries deny Bordeaux a try bonus. That's why I prefer the French rule, you are made to defend your try bonus for 80 minutes. Wins for Grenoble and Castres (BP) have made them pretty much safe.

It looks like it will be down to Brive or Bayonne next week. Brive (48) host Stade Francais and Bayonne (47) host La Rochelle.

I agree with you on the French rule for TBP that keeps the interest until the end. But UBB got it. They had scored 5 tries before Bayonne got their late 2 ones.

And yeah it'll be between Bayonne & Brive for the second relegation spot. If SF beat Montpellier, they may still have something to play for in the last game hoping Montpellier would beat Clermont so that they get a top2 finish. Which would favour Bayonne (La Rochelle is officially safe so will be on the beach next week).

Finally if Bayonne & Brive are level on points, the latter will go down since their H2H read Bayonne-Brive: 23-6 / Brive-Bayonne:25-9 so 4 pts to 4 and 32-31 advantage Bayonne. Jeez I'd hate to go down for 1 pt (though it'll be a remake of USAP last year who went down for 3 pts...).

thomond2006

Ah I thought Bayonne had three tries.

iroced

Hmmm... Stade Français now leading 28-9. 4 tries to none. Not even the hour mark. What a terrible season we're having. Fortunately we started it well or we'll have had all chances to go down (we're only 2 wins ahead of Bayonne :eek:).

19543261

And once again French rugby saves an otherwise boring weekend for the sport.

7 minutes left...come on.

pickarooney

Toulon have thrown the game at SMM I see. Looks like their fourth choice side.

iroced

pickarooney wrote: »

Toulon have thrown the game at SMM I see. Looks like their fourth choice side.

This is no good news for Brive.

If Clermont wins, Stade Français will go to Amédée-Domenech willing to win and secure a top2 finish.

Neoulous

USAP-Agen: 16-12 at HT.

But we were 16-0 up and had at least 2 try opportunities to kill Agen. Second half will be squeaky bum time ...


Earlier, Mont-de-Marsan made it to the final by beating Albi 22-8.

thomond2006

pickarooney wrote: »

Toulon have thrown the game at SMM I see. Looks like their fourth choice side.

It's a big risk as it puts them in danger of losing a semi-final spot.

Neoulous wrote: »

USAP-Agen: 16-12 at HT.

But we were 16-0 up and had at least 2 try opportunities to kill Agen. Second half will be squeaky bum time ...


Earlier, Mont-de-Marsan made it to the final by beating Albi 22-8.

This has gone to extra time at 26-26. Agen missed two penalties in the last 10 minutes.

thomond2006

Agen go through after ET. 32-32 and Agen go through thanks to scoring more tries in the match (4 vs 2). Who would have thought neither Perpignan or Biarritz would go back up? So it's Agen vs Mont-de-Marsan in the final.

Sorry Neoulous.

Neoulous

Aaaand voilà... la spéciale USAP . Big result away to get the home semi just to bottle it (apparently it only happened 3 times in history out of 10 years that the home semi-finalist lost :rolleyes:...).

I'm gutted. Just gutted ...

sydneybound

Gutted about this. I can only see either of these two go straight back down. Neither will bring any decent crowds to the Top14.

.ak

Ref couldn't be anymore pedantic in the clermont game.

Dave_The_Sheep

pickarooney wrote: »

Toulon have thrown the game at SMM I see. Looks like their fourth choice side.

They seem to be sticking it to Clermont even if it isn't the first choice, unfortunately.

.ak

Ironic call considering Suta got away with much much worse...

.ak

Some real dodgy calls going toulons way

Pudsy33

What the **** just happened?

Guy:Incognito

Not least the one to end the match. Try all day imo.

.ak

Clermont really unfortunate with the officials tonight. Had a try to deny Toulon a LBP and had penalty advantage but Tmo said double movement - it wasn't - and as such Toulon top the table.

thomond2006

Clermont -8

Dave_The_Sheep

What in the **** was that.

Guy:Incognito

Rather convenient that that dodgy call keeps Toulon top.:rolleyes:

Pudsy33

thomond2006 wrote: »

Clermont -8

I took the ****ers -3 in play :mad:

duckysauce

that was a try -- shocking match

Irlandczyk

Was only able to watch on SkyGo with no sound and for all the world thought that way a try. I honestly thought referee would take one look at it and blow for a try. You can imagine my confusion when it wasn't given. Horrendous call. Seems to me that an awful lot of calls went Toulon's way tonight, they can count themselves quite lucky to have gotten the bonus point tonight, I think.

thomond2006

Grenoble are not out of the woods just yet. Rugbyrama mention that in the case of equal points with any of the teams around it, Grenoble will finish below.

So if the below took place Grenoble would be relegated:
- Bayonne get a TBP win at home to La Rochelle - La Rochelle have nothing to play for
- Brive get a no bonus win at home to Stade Francais - Stade Francais in contention for Top 2
- Grenoble get nothing from their trip to Lyon - Lyon are already relegated

thomond2006

Bayonne have put an end to discussions with Biarritz. Both set of supporters were against a merger. So Biarritz will definitely be in ProD2 next year and Bayonne could join them.

total former

Confirmed that Yannick Nyanga will move to Racing next season. Still only 31, seems like he's been around forever.

I hadn't realised he was from Zaire.

Buer

total former wrote: »

Confirmed that Yannick Nyanga will move to Racing next season. Still only 31, seems like he's been around forever.

I hadn't realised he was from Zaire.

Made his first HEC start at 18 years old, playing blindside flanker. He is a freak. Went a bit off the boil for a few years though when he had been primed to be a superstar.

Big Nelly

total former wrote: »

Confirmed that Yannick Nyanga will move to Racing next season. Still only 31, seems like he's been around forever.

I hadn't realised he was from Zaire.

Quin have took Roberts from Racing, not sure if mentioned already