Pro D2 – Dax wins in pain against Nice and takes off in the red zone

Faced with a Nice team which arrived with ambitions for Maurice Boyau, Dax had a serious client to play in the fight for maintenance. Proof of this is that from the first minutes of play, it was the visitors who took the first lead in the game, thanks to the foot of Tanguy Ménoret, impeccable this evening in the exercise (0-3, 3').

At 5/5 against the poles, Nice can count on its scorer, who adds three additional points each time as soon as the opportunity arises (0-6, 7'). But by not wanting to score more, Dax enters his game, and the offensive movement concluded by his fullback Maxime Oltmann finally allows the Landais to take the match from the right end (5-6, 9'). The Niçois also suffered a double penalty since Jules Solinas was excluded for 10 minutes for a voluntary forward at the start of the action.

In front of their audience, the Dacquois then kick into high gear. Simon Garrouteigt quickly plays a volley save and serves Bastien Daguerre, launched like an arrow. The three-quarter center navigates on the outside and fixes the last defender before serving Hugo Fourquet at his side. The winger goes to the goal and offers a second try to the Landais, this time transformed by Romuald Seguy (12-6, 21').

In difficulty in the game, the Niçois made a series of hand faults but could count on Dacquoise's indiscipline to come back to three points (12-9, 35'), before Romuald Seguy restored a six-point lead at the break. (15-9, 40 + 1').

Also read: relive Dacquois success on home turf against promoted Nice

So close, but at the same time so far for the Stade Nice

Returning from the locker room, Nice started again as in the first half and gave everything to get back into the score. Tanguy Ménoret's new penalty goes between the posts (15-12, 45'). But, as too often, the Azuréens will falter, in particular because of the yellow card suffered by Nathan Courtade following a head-to-head collision with Noah Nene.

A minute later, the sentence falls. We take the same ones, Hugo Fourquet puts it back inside for Maxime Oltmann, who serves Sylvère Reteau on his left. Intelligently, the scrum half who had just come into play puts it behind him for Bastien Daguerre, who just has to flatten. Dax then takes the offensive bonus point, what's more in numerical superiority (22-12, 51').

Nice still showed combativeness. Beautiful percussion from Tom Daly, who puts his partners forward. Sacha Idoumi's one-step pass is good for Arthur Vignolles, who allows Martin Freytes to quickly pick up the ball before flattening it. The visitors seem to put doubt in the minds of the Dacquois, who then have only a three-point lead (22-19, 61').

The last 20 minutes will only be exchanges of kicks and hand faults of all kinds. If Dax spends most of his time in the Nice 22 meters, they will not end up scoring this fourth try, which is synonymous with a fifth point. Like the match, the last ball let slip forward by Paul Auradou, author of a good match overall, will close this game.

In the standings, Dax takes a six-point lead over the red zone thanks to this success and moves up to 9th place with 21 points. At the same time, the Landais are only three points from the top 6 and can look towards the top of the table before going to Béziers next Friday.

For its part, Nice suffered a second consecutive setback and fell back into the red zone, 15th with 15 units, thanks to this defensive bonus point hanging on despite everything. The promoted team will have to be much more enterprising during the next day to obtain a result, because the Azuréens will travel to the lawn of the leader, Montauban.