After their defeat against Agen, the Oyomen find themselves fifteenth and play-offs after thirteen days. Brive emerged victorious from the evening’s clash against Béziers… Discover the lessons of the Pro D2 day.
The gesture of the evening: Du Plessis’ drops save the Montois
Against Grenoble, the Montois had a lot to do. The Isérois had not lost since a trip to Montauban on the eighth day. The leaders were also traveling with a solid team, but the Landais did not intend to let it happen so simply. In a tight start to the match, the boot of gunners Willie Du Plessis and Yoann Laousse Azpiazu made the Grenoble rearguard suffer.
While Marc Palmier, positioned at the opening, kept his team in the match, the South African made the first gap with a drop of which he has the secret. The match got carried away, and the two openers engaged in a magnificent mano a mano against the poles, until the drop of almost 50 meters from Grenoblois which allowed the FCG to come back to a point. But it’s not the old monkey that you teach to make a face. And thanks to a new drop, from Du Plessis obviously, the Montois flew to victory.
The players of the evening: the wingers wear Nevers
Xavier Péméja must cherish his wingers. While USON is in the midst of a crisis, the match in Nice was shaping up to be one of all fears. However, the Nivernais negotiated their start to the match perfectly, to the point of leading 22 to 0. The inevitable Arthur Mathiron lit the first fuse, before doubling the lead by perfectly playing the Nice defense. Johan Wasserman even scored his team’s third try before the break.
While the evening seemed perfect for USON, everything would change after the expulsion of Kévin Noah for a bad tackle. Nice gradually came back into the match. The scoreboard even showed 19 – 25 and everything was going in the direction of the locals. It was at this moment that this same Wasserman left his business card with four people from Nice to go and flatten the victory attempt. Between them, the two pocket-sized wingers carried Nevers!
The bad gesture of the evening: Brice Humbert condemns the VRDR
Times are not easy for Valencia. Fabien Fortassin’s players could have done a lot of good for Aurillac. For a long time the Damiers could have believed in it. They even returned to the locker room with a three-point lead. But upon returning to the field, the replacement hooker, Brice Humbert condemned his team.
Guilty of a slightly late tackle on Hugo Seunes, he then responded to the provocation of the opener Cantalou, not in the right way. The former Castres, who was playing his first match of the evening, sent his shoulder into the shoulder of his opponent. Enough to be excluded. Outnumbered, the Drômois could not compete and ended up losing at the end of the fight.
The special of the evening: balloons, a Brivist recipe
New leader of Pro D2 on the evening of this thirteenth day of Pro D2, Brive can particularly thank its forwards. As since the start of the season, the Corrèze pack allowed Pierre-Henry Broncan’s men to escape from a trap, which this time was called Béziers (15-10). From the first minutes of play, it was on a penetrating group, the local specialty, that the Coujoux scored their first try. Lucas Da Silva thus offered himself his eighth achievement of the season, joining Gabin Lorre and Adrien Lapègue at the top of the ranking of the best Pro D2 scorers.
Deficient against the more creative and disciplined Biterrois, Courtney Lawes’ teammates once again relied on a maul in the second half to undermine the opposing defense. It was just after this ball, on which the Héraultais made a mistake, that van der Merwe released his team. We then had to hold out for twenty minutes, which they did: Brive was able to thank its mauls…
The first of the evening: the SA XV enjoys itself in Sapiac
After six defeats and a draw, Soyaux-Angoulême finally returns from Montauban with the four points of victory (20-27)! The Angoumoisins have never won on the Sapiac pitch in their history… This time they did it in style! Serene, powerful and intelligent, Alexandre Ruiz’s men gave a little lesson to the overwhelmed Montalbanais, who seemed to lose control. Thanks in particular to a decisive interception from Ben Botica, the SA XV confirmed its status as the best team outside of Pro D2. This is the fourth time in seven matches that the Charentais have won far from their base.
This victory above all allows Soyaux-Angoueven to return very close to Montauban and the top 6 in the ranking. Enough to reignite the suspense in the race to the final phase. USM conceded its first home defeat of the season and really seems to be getting back into line.
The surprise of the evening: Oyonnax is a roadblocker!
Who would have believed it at the start of the season? Oyonnax, freshly relegated from Top 14, is at 15e Pro D2 place on the evening of this 13e daytime. Madness, when everyone legitimately imagined the Aindinois fighting for the very first places in the ranking this season! In Agen, the Oyomen suffered their fifth defeat in a row in the league (28-14). This shows the damage they are carrying… The duel was nevertheless tense and Oyonnax fought on the Armandie lawn, while the Lot-et-Garonnais also remained on four defeats in a row. Only, Ramotabua’s red card from the 12the minute did not help the visitors’ affairs. The inability to score a single try didn’t help either…
The Agenais took advantage of this to make their opponents crack and even win the offensive bonus at the very end of the game! The reality is there: Oyonnax today does not have the makings of a big name in the antechamber of the elite and will have to hold on to extricate himself from this very unfortunate situation. Always more worrying week after week, the Black and Red will have to change something in their formula…
The twist of the day: Dax mentally!
Dax was hot, very hot! At the end of the suspense, the USD won on the face in Biarritz, at the end of the 13th day of Pro D2 (26-20). Everything came down to a thread, a final decisive action to tell the truth. While the Landais had led the score for most of the match, it was the Basques who took the lead in the final minutes, thanks to a try from Barry, magnificently converted by Dolhagaray.
Only the Dacquois have the mentality and on the return, while the last action was played after the siren, Théo Gatelier scored the winning try in the corner… after flirting with the touchline. Thanks to this third success in a row, Dax joins the race for the top 6. A battle for the final phase which is undoubtedly relaunched…
