French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

thomond2006 · 15-05-2010 10:12am

Match Report: http://www.rugby365.com/news/2416150.htm

Perpignan, the reigning Top 14 champions, are through to the 2010 Final after beating Toulouse 21-13 at Stade de La Mosson in Montpellier on Friday evening. And they did it without scoring a single try.

In fact there was just one try in the match, scored by Toulouse's scrumhalf, 20-year-old Nicolas Bézy near the start of the match. The winning points all came from Perpignan's fullback, Jérôme Porical.

After just eight minutes, Toulouse led 7-0 and after 26 minutes were ahead 13-9, which was the half-time score. They did not score again. Even the try which they scored, glorious though it was, was against the run of play. Finau Maka won a turnover and off went Florian Fritz and Clément Poitrenaud who gave to David Skrela. The big flyhalf passed inside the Bézy who scored under the posts.

In the last few minutes, with Perpignan leading 18-13, proud Toulouse threw everything into the attack with Louis Picamoles close but Thierry Dusautoir was penalised and the Catalans escaped - successfully for with just two minutes to go Porical, who had missed a long kick at goal shortly before, goaled his seventh to put Toulouse beyond a converted try.

In the second half Porical goaled four penalties as gradually the Catalans climbed till they took the lead with half an hour to go.

Perpignan have their magnificent defence and the performance of their pack at scrum time to thank for the victory.

The Catalans are back on the journey to the Final. Their opponents, Clermont or Toulon, will be known after Saturday's semifinal.

Scorers:

For Perpignan:
Pens: Porical 7

For Toulouse:
Try: Bézy
Con: Skrela
Pens: Skrela 2

Teams:

Perpignan: 15 Jérôme Porical, 14 Farid Sid, 13 David Marty, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Christophe Manas, 10 Gavin Hume, 9 Nicolas Durand, 8 Jean-Pierre Pérez, 7 Henry Tuilagi, 6 Ovidiu Tonita, 5 Robins Tchale-Watchou, 4 Olivier Olibeau, 3 Nicolas Mas (captain), 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Perry Freshwater
Replacements: 16 Marius Tincu, 17 Jérôme Schuster, 18 Guillaume Vilaceca, 19 Grégory Le Corvec, 20 David Mélé, 21 Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, 22 Philip Burger, 23 Kisi Pulu

Toulouse: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Vilimoni Delasau, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 David Skrela, 9 Nicolas Bézy, 8 Finau Maka, 7 Shaun Sowerby, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Virgile Lacombe, 1 Daan Human
Replacements: 16 William Servat, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Romain Millo-Chluski, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Thierry Dusautoir, 21 Maxime Médard, 22 Vincent Clerc, 23 Benoît Lecouls

Referee: Romain Poite
Assistant referees: Pascal Gauzere, Cyril Lafon
Assessor: Daniel Pascal, Michel Kazmierczak
Television match official: Gérard Borreani

Don't recognise the name of the Toulouse scrum half, were Elissalde and Kelleher both injured?
They had no SH on the bench too.

PhatPiggins · 15-05-2010 10:30am

thomond2006 wrote: »

Match Report: http://www.rugby365.com/news/2416150.htm

Don't recognise the name of the Toulouse scrum half, were Elissalde and Kelleher both injured?
They had no SH on the bench too.

Dare I say it but were Toulouse resting players for the HC final? Look at the guys they have on the bench!

Risteard · 15-05-2010 10:38am

Toulouse have said that their priority is the HC. I think one of their players said it in an interview a while back before the semi-final.

tof2006 · 15-05-2010 12:21pm

Yep Guy Noves the Toulouse manager, spend last week claiming Toulouse could not win both HCup and Brennus, with such succession of intense games, and that anyway europe was Toulouse priority. The front line should be back to its best for the H-Cup final.

BoarHunter · 19-05-2010 1:57pm

Avants (16) :
Fabien Barcella (Biarritz), Thomas Domingo (Clermont), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Français), Guilhem Guirado (Perpignan), Nicolas Mas (Perpignan), Luc Ducalcon (Castres), Jean-Baptiste Poux (Stade Toulousain), Romain Millo-Chluski (Stade Toulousain), Lionel Nallet (Racing-Métro), Pascal Papé (Stade Français), Julien Pierre (Clermont), Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz), Louis Picamoles (Stade Toulousain), Thierry Dusautoir (Stade Toulousain, cap.), Julien Bonnaire (Clermont), Wenceslas Lauret (Biarritz).

Arrières (14):
Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz), Morgan Parra (Clermont), François Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), David Skrela (Stade Toulousain), Maxime Mermoz (Perpignan), Yannick Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), David Marty (Perpignan), Mathieu Bastareaud (Stade Français), Vincent Clerc (Stade Toulousain), Marc Andreu (Castres), Clément Poitrenaud (Stade Toulousain), Jérôme Porical (Perpignan), Aurélien Rougerie (Clermont), Julien Malzieu (Clermont).

19-05-2010 2:14pm

At a glance, a notable omission is Cédric Heymans. I know he's old but he did score a savage try against the All Blacks last year.

No Ellisalde or Floch either.

If France got a decent out half they would be the ones to beat at the RWC next year. Either way they'll still probably beat NZ

BoarHunter · 19-05-2010 4:29pm

Forwards (14): Jérôme Schuster (Perpignan), Yannick Forestier (Castres), Benjamin Kayser (Stade Français), Jean-Philippe Genevois (Bourgoin), Clément Baïocco (Racing-Métro), Rabah Slimani (Stade Français), Yoann Maestri (Stade Toulousain), Joselino Suta (Toulon), Guillmaume Vilaceca (Perpignan), Antoine Batut (Montauban), Sylvain Nicolas (Bourgoin), Florian Faure (Biarritz), Grégory Lamboley (Stade Toulousain), Jean-Pierre Pérez (Perpignan)

Backs (12): Julien Dupuy (Stade Français), Nicolas Durand (Perpignan), Lionel Beauxis (Stade Français), Benjamin Boyet (Bourgoin), Romain Cabannes (Castres), Yann David (Stade Toulousain), Henry Chavancy (Racing-Métro), Lionel Mazars (Bayonne), Maxime Médard (Stade Toulousain), Adrien Planté (Perpignan), Farid Sid (Perpignan), Benjamin Thiéry (Montpellier)

thomond2006 · 19-05-2010 4:34pm

Amazing that class players like Durand, Beauxis and Medard can only make the A squad! :eek:

castie · 19-05-2010 4:40pm

Susprised to see Dupuy there considering hes been suspended for over 20 weeks. ( unless they worked some way around letting him play. not up on my french rugby)

BoarHunter · 19-05-2010 4:43pm

Durand is under Parra, Elissalde, Michalak, Yachvili and Dupuy

Elissalde looks he needs rest ( he gets injured every second match ) Michalak is out for long.

For Beauxis, he was in great form at the end of the season but he is paying for his club bad results. If he continues to show the form he had against Toulouse in HCup he could make it for the Autumn series.

BoarHunter · 19-05-2010 4:44pm

castie wrote: »

Susprised to see Dupuy there considering hes been suspended for over 20 weeks. ( unless they worked some way around letting him play. not up on my french rugby)

Suspension is ending first week of june or so.

BoarHunter · 23-05-2010 12:01am

Sad news for rugby. In the aftermath of the Hcup, Jean Baptiste Elissalde announced his retirement from the game.

A great player with superb vision. i will miss watching him play.

thomond2006 · 23-05-2010 12:05am

BoarHunter wrote: »

Sad news for rugby. In the aftermath of the Hcup, Jean Baptiste Elissalde announced his retirement from the game.

A great player with superb vision. i will miss watching him play.

That's such a shame, great player for Toulouse and France.

23-05-2010 8:13pm

BoarHunter wrote: »

Sad news for rugby. In the aftermath of the Hcup, Jean Baptiste Elissalde announced his retirement from the game.

A great player with superb vision. i will miss watching him play.

he only has 35 caps for France :eek:

thomond2006 · 12-06-2010 11:03am

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,16616_6201663,00.html

Montauban set to be liquidated after being refused entry into ProD2.

Really sad.

BoarHunter · 13-06-2010 1:30pm

it will be tough for a good few teams unfortunately

redroar1942 · 13-06-2010 1:49pm

BoarHunter wrote: »

it will be tough for a good few teams unfortunately

They need a far more equitable salary cap then the one they're proposing. The gap between the have's and the have nots is huge and worse its forcing the have nots to commit financial suicide.

BoarHunter · 13-06-2010 3:39pm

the problem lies somewhere else. what kills these little clubs is the suppresion of some public rights that cut their budget drastically. Montauban would have been fine if they still had had the same income they had the previous season. These teams will be replaced by others with the same salary cap but with more marketing potential ( big cities ). Salary cap has nothing to do with it.

What is sad is that teams that were historically deep into the rugby scene will struggle big time becasue of a minister who decided to save some peanuts...

redroar1942 · 13-06-2010 5:23pm

BoarHunter wrote: »

the problem lies somewhere else. what kills these little clubs is the suppresion of some public rights that cut their budget drastically. Montauban would have been fine if they still had had the same income they had the previous season. These teams will be replaced by others with the same salary cap but with more marketing potential ( big cities ). Salary cap has nothing to do with it.

What is sad is that teams that were historically deep into the rugby scene will struggle big time becasue of a minister who decided to save some peanuts...

So Toulon having a squad of 50+ players with an average wage of over 100k a year has nothing to do with clubs over extending themselves to compete on players wages?

BoarHunter · 13-06-2010 6:26pm

redroar1942 wrote: »

So Toulon having a squad of 50+ players with an average wage of over 100k a year has nothing to do with clubs over extending themselves to compete on players wages?

No not really because there is a strong financial regulator in France. The problem comes from this sudden change in the fiscal system of the clubs. The accounts were balanced last season but with the suppression of this tax relief it all changed.
In the coming years teams such as Lyon and Bordeaux will arise under the financing of big industrial groups. The only sad thing is that all these little places who were mad about rugby won't be able to compete with this.

redroar1942 · 13-06-2010 6:59pm

BoarHunter wrote: »

No not really because there is a strong financial regulator in France. The problem comes from this sudden change in the fiscal system of the clubs. The accounts were balanced last season but with the suppression of this tax relief it all changed.
In the coming years teams such as Lyon and Bordeaux will arise under the financing of big industrial groups. The only sad thing is that all these little places who were mad about rugby won't be able to compete with this.

Was down in Beziers last year and heard similar complaints from the locals. Absolutely rugby mad but losing all their decent young players to cash rich clubs. Pity but thats the price of professionalism.

anonymous_joe · 13-06-2010 7:51pm

Lovely spot Béziers.

I've nothing really else to add on their rugby though.

What's the story with rugby in Cannes do you? Would Nice be the nearest decent sized club?

thomond2006 · 14-06-2010 9:51am

BoarHunter wrote: »

In the coming years teams such as Lyon and Bordeaux will arise under the financing of big industrial groups. The only sad thing is that all these little places who were mad about rugby won't be able to compete with this.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12331_6205568,00.html

Lyon have started already.

BoarHunter · 16-06-2010 10:05am

The transfer window is closed for the TOP14. Clubs cannot longer recruit. Only medical jokers are allowed.

Despite Racing and Toulon being very active due to Hcup bench depth need, the other clubs have rather decreased their squad. Brive got rid of flutey, Goode and thompson for exemple.

The 2 promoted clubs ( Agen and La Rochelle ) have an extended period for recruitement until the 15th july.

BoarHunter · 16-06-2010 10:33am

http://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/breves2010/20100524_180755_le-journal-des-transferts.html

redroar1942 · 16-06-2010 11:10am

BoarHunter wrote: »

http://www.lequipe.fr/Rugby/breves2010/20100524_180755_le-journal-des-transferts.html

And for any one else who failed leaving cert french:

http://frenchrugbyclub.com/Top-14/Top-14-2009-10/Top-14-Transfers-2010-11-000892.html

BoarHunter · 16-06-2010 3:10pm

thx redroar !

thomond2006 · 18-06-2010 7:00pm

Stade Français
In: Michael Cheika (coach, Leinster, Ireland - Australian by birth), Martin Rodriguez Gurruchaga (Atlético del Rosario - Argentinian by birth), Gonzalo Tiesi (Harlequins - Argentinian by birth), Goderdzi Shvelidze (Montauban - Georgian by birth), James Hamilton (Edinburgh - English by birth), Santiago Guzman (Tucumán, Argentina)

Out: Geoffroy Messina (Toulon), Benjamin Kayser (Castres), Marc Gasnier (Australia), Mirco Bergamasco (Racing-Métro 92 - Italian by birth), Sylvain Marconnet (Biarritz), Jacques Delmas (coach, Stade Français)

Stade are losing a lot of quality players aren't they? Gasnier and Marconnet would start for most of Europe's top teams. I guess losing their HEC place has cost them big time.

Biarritz will have Barcella and Marconnet in the front row next season. :eek:

CouchSmart · 18-06-2010 7:15pm

I think they're in trouble with the tax man and the FFR. I hear there's a lot of debt in the club, which would explain all the exits. Cheika is just the man to sort them out.

PhatPiggins · 18-06-2010 7:34pm

thomond2006 wrote: »

Stade Français
In: Michael Cheika (coach, Leinster, Ireland - Australian by birth), Martin Rodriguez Gurruchaga (Atlético del Rosario - Argentinian by birth), Gonzalo Tiesi (Harlequins - Argentinian by birth), Goderdzi Shvelidze (Montauban - Georgian by birth), James Hamilton (Edinburgh - English by birth), Santiago Guzman (Tucumán, Argentina)

Out: Geoffroy Messina (Toulon), Benjamin Kayser (Castres), Marc Gasnier (Australia), Mirco Bergamasco (Racing-Métro 92 - Italian by birth), Sylvain Marconnet (Biarritz), Jacques Delmas (coach, Stade Français)

Stade are losing a lot of quality players aren't they? Gasnier and Marconnet would start for most of Europe's top teams. I guess losing their HEC place has cost them big time.

Biarritz will have Barcella and Marconnet in the front row next season. :eek:

I thought SF were barred from signing players this season because of their tax irregularities?

The French really do talk about a lot of punishments/salary caps/quota's and punish only the weak clubs.

French rugby Updates : Le café du Rugby.

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