French Top 8: All to play for
The French Top 8 goes on ice for two months with five points separating the top four teams
Published by John Birch, January 26th, 2017
3 minute read
JessyTrémoulière scores- but cannot inspire a win for Romagnat thuis week (Photo:La Montagne)
The results were more to form the final week of the Top 8 before the Six Nations.
The highlight of the weekend was a top of the table clash, with new leaders Blagnac St Orens (BSORF) travelling up to the frozen north to meet Lille.
Weather forced the game to move to an artificial surface that, in practice, offered little improvement over a frozen grass pitch – it was "hard as bitumen" according to Yana Rivoalen and "extremely slippery" according to Romane Ménager. BSORF lost five players with injuries, while Lille lost Virginie Grière. However, most of the international players sat out the game.
BSORF struck first with a try after six minutes, but Lille battled back to pull ahead two minutes later through a converted Romane Ménager try. Four more tries followed, while Belgian interational Sytske D’haeseleir was in great form with the boot, converting four out of five as Lille took the game, and returned to the top of the table, with a 33-26 win.
Montpellier also recovered from an unexpected loss the previous weekend to dismiss Bobigny 44-7 – a loss that leaves the Parisians dangerously close to the relegation zone.
Bottom team Romagnat were also forced onto a synthetic pitch for the arrival of Toulouse. Again Jessy Trémoulière as in great form scoring all of their points, but this time she was not able to inspire a win for her team who 10-29.
The final game should have seen the two northern teams Caen and Rennes come together, but their game was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
CLUB
P
W
D
L
PD
BP
PTS
1
LILLE METROPOLE RC VILLENEUVOIS
12
10
0
2
101
3
43
2
BLAGNAC SAINT ORENS RUGBY FEMININ
12
9
0
3
205
6
42
3
MONTPELLIER R C
12
8
0
4
212
8
40
4
STADE TOULOUSAIN RUGBY FEMININ
12
8
0
4
107
6
38
5
STADE RENNAIS RUGBY
11
7
0
4
26
4
32
6
A C BOBIGNY 93 RUGBY
12
2
0
10
-107
5
13
7
L OVALIE CAENNAISE
11
2
0
9
-240
2
10
8
A S M ROMAGNAT RUGBY FÉMININ
12
1
0
11
-304
2
6