French Top 10: Quarter-finals begin

(Picture montage: Ovalie Caennaise)

In practice the first leg, with the lower ranked teams at home, went generally to form. The two pool winners (and last year’s finalists), Montpellier and Lille, had impressive away wins which should see both safely into the semi-finals.

Lille travelled about as far as it’s possible to travel in France – all the way to Perpignan, a distance of over 1000km (700 miles). However, in the past few years it had been a relatively productive journey and this weekend proved no exception.

The home side were not helped by the absence of three leading players - Fanny Horta, Claire Canal and Elodie Guiglion – a situation made worse after only 20 minutes when back row Christel Chouly was forced from the field through illness, rather than injury, requiring a reshuffle saw hooker Wendy Divoux moved to the flank.

Prior to this Perpignan had been playing well. They even took the lead with a Le Duff penalty, but after the forced change in the pack Lille began to dominate. Alexandra Pertus at full back was a constant threat, cutting some great lines, while the forwards were now clear winners in their battle. The first try, on 32 minutes, came as a result of huge pressure by the northerner’s pack, Perpignan eventually giving away a penalty try before wing Shannon Izar stretched the lead further with a try at the break, giving Lille a 14-3 advantage at half-time – a scoreline that belied the extent of Lille’s dominance of the game by this point.

Perpignan's difficulties grew when Marie Alice Yahe did not re-emerge after half time, being replaced by Perpignan’s up-and-coming young scrum half Victoria Bobo. who was returning from a major knee injury herself but will have benefited from the experience. For the first ten minutes the Catalans held out, but at a cost. Two more injuries in the scrum, including experienced international Myriam Loyez, resulted in Perpignan having to fill the back row with front row replacements.

A third Lille try, from Emelline Dupont extended the visitors lead to 17-3 resulted in Perpignan throwing caution to the wind in a bid to close the gap. The result was only a yellow card for Le Duff, and two more tries for Lille from Gina Di Muzio and Yanna Rivolaen, resulting in an almost unassailable 31-3 win for Lille to defend next weekend.

All was not entirely lost for Perpignan, with several young players performing well, including No 8 Lucie Sagols - daughter of international rugby and handball player Ailine Sagols – who stood up well to the pressure, Julie Billes, who was on great form, and centre Sylvie Parnaud also had a good game.

Monpellier’s win at Blagnac was almost as decisive. 28-8 was the final score, with four internationals sharing the tries – Portaries, Poublan, Bailon and N’Diaye – while Bailon also added a conversion, a penalty and a drop goal.

The other two games – between the teams who finished second and third in their pools – were somewhat closer, with the standout performance coming in the all northern battle between Caen and Rennes with Caen recording the only home win of the quarter-finals, beating Rennes by 26-9.

There is still plenty to play for in the final tie, Bobigny only taking a five point lead back to Paris after a tight, if mistake -strewn, 23-18 win at La Valette. It was something of a leap into the dark for the Parisian visitors, and La Valette are building a small but justified reputation for being a difficult side to beat, especially at home.

In practice, Bobigny were able to build up a 12-3 lead by half-time that could, and perhaps should, have been more. As a result La Valette were able to come back at their visitors in the second half, reducing a comfortable nine point lead to a rather more nervy five point gap (and a losing bonus point for La Valette*) for the start of next week's game.

Finally, Lons and Bordeaux played the first leg of a game that no-one really wanted to play – a 9th place play-off rendered somewhat meaningless by the fact that both teams will be relegated regardless of the result. Playing at home Bordeaux rose to the occasion more than their visitors, recording a surprise 38-10 win.

*Technically the winners of each tie will be decided by league points gained in the fixtures, with aggregate match points only coming into play if the league points are equal. It is therefore mathematically possible - if unlikely - that a team might qualify for the semi-finals despite "losing" on aggregate score.