Montpellier throw down the gauntlet
The final round of the Top 10 pool stage was completed last weekend. Eight teams remain in contention – but there is just one clear favourite.
Published by John Birch, December 18th, 2013
3 minute read
Montpellier v Caen (thanks toOvaliecaennaise.com)
Faced with a game when their qualification as pool winners was already assured, most teams might take it easy – but in their final game of the year French champions Montpellier showed why they have been the outstanding team of 2013.
Caen were their visitors – not a bad side by any mean, already qualified and with an outside chance of the pool runners up spot.
And the result? A win for Montpellier by eight tries to one, 48-5. Two tries each for Virgine Vidal and Safi N’Diaye, plus individual scores for Kouimba Djossouvi, Wendy Merenda, Clotilde Flaugere, and Gaelle Mignot – who continued her remarkable scoring record.
Their quarter-final opponents will be Blagnac St Orens, who spent the weekend (somewhat nervously) on the sidelines, hoping that results would go their way. News that La Valette had held Rennes to a 3-3 draw will not have helped nerves, but the main focus of attention was always the game at Lille. Here a win for Lons would have relegated BSORF – but in truth the result was never in doubt. It took Lille 13 minutes to break down the Lons defence, but after that it was mainly one-way traffic, with Shannon Izar running in a hat-trick as the home team swept to a 53-7 win.
The win – and Rennes’ draw – confirmed Lille as winners of Pool 2, giving them a quarter-final against Perpignan who finished their pool programme with an unconvincing 22-13 win at pointless and already-relegated Bordeaux, though their performance was not helped by yet another addition name to the club’s gargantuan injury list with Claire Canal coming off with what subsequently diagnosed as a sprained ankle in the opening minutes of the game. With a month until the quarter-final the Catalans will be hoping to reduce the length of the list – they will need to.
Rennes’ reward for their second place in Pool 2 will be “derby” game against Caen, while the final quarter final will send La Valette to Paris to play Bobigny. All quarter-finals will be played over two legs, with the lower ranked team at home on the 12th January, with the return leg a week later.