At the end of a huge fight, Pia took over Carcassonne at the end of the match, 26-24, at the end of the 11th day of Super XIII.
Between a Pia team in confidence and still very difficult to handle on their lawn and a Carcassonne team keen to redeem themselves after their disappointment at home last weekend against Albi, the meeting looked promising despite a violent wind present today hui on Catalan soil.
The start of the match was to the advantage of the locals who opened the scoring from a corner through Iliass Bergal while their opponents were still unable to take advantage of possession of the ball. Not in the game at the start of the match with unusual blunders, the reigning champion conceded a new try very early in the match through Amine Miloudi who rushed into a mouse hole and managed to resist the return defenders to flatten the ball in the promised land.
A new hand fault from Escaré allowed Lenny Chachoua, the pianenc metronome of this first part of the season, to send a marvelous jump pass for François Thérésin who only had to score his team's third try in barely fifteen minutes of play. Facing the wind, Amine Miloudi nevertheless missed the three transformations.
Stung, the Carcassonnais finally managed to get their heads back on track and, after several successive defensive errors, pushed Mr. Drizza to show the yellow card against Alexis Meresta-Doucet. The advantage linked to this numerical superiority was immediate, Clément Herrero navigated the defense to serve Vincent Albert who on one step shifted to his winger Georgy Gambaro who reduced the score to a corner.
On the return, Carcassonne was close to doubling the lead but Drodrolagi, trying to free himself, dropped the ball. Pia immediately recovered and on the next offensive chain, Lenny Chachoua pushed the ball into the goal, Morgan Escaré and Georgy Gambaro got in the way by trying to take the ball out of bounds and the latter miraculously returned to the hands of Léo Laurent who just had to flatten it.
Unfortunately for them, the kick-off was not controlled and allowed Carcassonne to benefit from an attacking ball in Pia's camp. The leader of the ranking did not let this great opportunity pass and the young Maxime Belondrade surprised the defense by starting at full speed behind the defender to score in his turn.
Just before the break, Amine Miloudi adjusted a penalty to allow his team to return to the locker room with a logical advantage on the scoreboard (20-10).
Ilias Bergal en sauveur
As soon as the restart and after a big charge from Pianenc rookie Ilai Tuai, the canaries made a mistake and Amine Miloudi added two additional points on a penalty.
A powerful Vincent Albert concluded a good start to the game on the right side to allow his team to still believe in it. Especially since Pia would once again find herself outnumbered, Erwan Mathé, author of a dangerous tackle, was asked to return to the bench for ten minutes. Maxime Belondrade was very close to completing a highlight for his team but Ilai Tuai miraculously managed to prevent him from scoring.
Carcassonne did not get discouraged, on the contrary, and Djibryl Dauliac surprised his opponents once again at the bottom to score at the foot of the posts. With the transformation of Clément Herrero, the score was then 22 to 20 in favor of the locals.
The wind, which had already been violent since the start of the match, became even more violent and Lenny Chachoua saw him carry the ball directly into touch with a big candle. An offering that Carcassonne did not let pass and on the fifth down the players decided to play it on the long side, Morgan Escaré created the gap for Georgy Gambaro who by scoring in the corner allowed his team to go ahead in the score for the first time of the meeting.
Except that Pia didn't want to miss the opportunity to pin the leader on her hunt. And in one of the final actions of the match, the ball flew from hand to hand to Ilias Bergal who acrobatically sealed the fate of this match. The public exulted with joy, Pia won 26 to 24 for this last meeting of the year. Carcassonne, which seemed untouchable until recently, concluded this first phase with two consecutive losses.
