the essential
Led almost the entire game, the champion believed he could overthrow Rowing, before giving in two minutes from time. He nevertheless leaves with the defensive bonus and keeps the lead before the holidays (12-8).
If the Stade played strong and did not lose the championship, its victory fell to Jean-Dauger. For three seasons, however, they had never been so close to fracturing the Bayonne structure and for lack of anything better, it is a simple defensive bonus that we will have to be content with. Launched at a frantic pace, with Toulouse investing in the lower camp, the game gave rise to a huge defensive standoff. Faced with the “red and black” determined to keep the ball alive in defense, the Bayonnais put up a most aggressive curtain, like the rough tackles suffered by Mallia on the advantage line, the Argentinian opener posing his knee on the ground twice during the first twenty minutes, notably shaken by the Tagi buffalo when Barassi was entitled to his dose of Tuilagi.
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A period during which Rowing had lost its captain Iturria, injured in the left shoulder (8), his exit however did not seem to unduly disturb the “blue and white” collective. This was evidenced by the opportunistic try scored by Maqala – and validated after video refereeing – on the first incursion of his team into the visiting camp, Bayonne taking advantage of the visiting indiscipline to give a lesson in realism after an overhand kick. Machenaud and a reception stammered by Orabé between Bituniyata and Kinghorn (7-0, 15).
A lack of realism which is costly
Coming to play the big game, the Stadium wanted to force its destiny by refusing to attempt the penalties that it caused in the Basque camp, preferring to opt for penalties. However, the champion cruelly lacked control in the opposing 22 meters, between a forward from Cramont on a closed side start (11), an unproductive maul (18), three touches lost consecutively (20-23) and a poor ball release after a winning counter-ruck (25th). So much wasted ammunition which was inevitably missing at the time of the final count.
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The “red and black” nevertheless showed as much generosity in defense as in attack, with added efficiency, effectively limiting the damage before the break while Jelonchh had received a yellow card for a charge on the shoulder on Habel-Küffner. Two stolen touches by Brennan (38) and Banos (40 + 3) and a try refused to Mousques for a forward from Moon (40 + 1) thus allowed Willis' teammates to turn to 0-7.
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A delay that took them 20 minutes to reduce, Bituniyata achieving a highlight for his team in the middle in front of the Basque goal thanks to a sharp intervention (61st). Kinghorn's transformation into a medium position failed, so we had to wait to put ourselves in a position to overthrow the Bayonnais. Under the whistles of a public no more fair play than the Toulouse residents are “protected” as he chanted, the Scotsman was not wrong a second time when converting the penalty allowing his team to take the lead for the first time in the game (8-7, 74). Only, after a drop (76) and a penalty (77) missed by Segonds, Bayonne set the stadium defense on fire, throwing all its energy into the battle to put the champion down and offer itself a fifth success at the house thanks to his tightrope walker Maqala (12-8, 78). To tell the truth, anything but undeserved.
