No surprises in French Top 10

Photo: Stade Rennais Rugby

Champions Montpellier followed their 28-8 first leg win over Blagnac St Orens with an equally emphatic five-try 33-5 home win. With nearly half of the team in the French squad for their opening game in the Six Nations, “Les Coccinelles” continued their remarkable 2013 form into 2014. Tries from Elodie Poublan, Virginie Vidal, Galle Mignot and two from Safi N’Diaye – with four converted by Aurelie Bailon – were too much for BSORF.

This - the only all-south tie – produced the south’s only win, and sends Montpellier back to Caen for a repeat of last year’s semi-final. Remarkably this will be Caen’s seventh semi-final in 11 years the club has existed. Their win was based around a 26-9 home first leg win against Rennes. In the second leg, Caen continued to use their more powerful pack, opening the scoring with a penalty try following a collapsed Rennes scrum. However, Rennes were far from beaten. Jade Le Pesq, in her first game back after three months, looked dangerous throughout, and came close to putting Rennes ahead after a penalty had reduced Caen’s lead.

Rennes did take the lead early in the second half, thanks to another penalty try which also reduced Caen to 14. However, desperate defence meant that Rennes could not take advantage, and once the teams were back to even numbers they levelled the score at 10-10, which was the final score. Player-coach Sandra Rabier was happy with the outcome: “This early try gave us confidence. Defensively, I am satisfied and even if everything wasn’t perfect, we only conceded a penalty try in two games, which is very positive.”

Caen, the only team who finished third in a pool to make the final four, played Montpellier in the pool, losing only 12-10 at home. The return game was a more decisive 48-5 win for Montpellier, though by that time both teams knew they had qualified.

Paris’ Bobigny ensured a Top 10 semi-final in the capital for the first time for years, but were pushed all the way again by La Valette. After a tight first leg the “Wolves” of Bobigny held only a five point advantage, and “Les Var” came close to reducing that lead in the opening exchanges, a fourth minute penalty going narrowly wide. After that let off it was Bobigny who opened the scoring, with two penalties, but that was soon match by the vistors.

However a misjudged box kick from Les Var’s Scrumhalf broke the deadlock, Clemence Gueucier returning the kick to touch down under the posts, giving Bobigny a 13-6 halftime lead.

La Valette dominated the second half, but could only break the Bobigny defence once – a try on 60 minutes taking the score to 13-11, where it stayed.

The reactions of the coaches at the end were interesting with La Valette’s coach leaving far happier (“our small team had shaken the big club with resources that we cannot match. We do not have a good kicking game and you need that to win this sort of game”) than Bobigny’s Fabien Antonelli, who felt his team were “just bad”.

They certainly will have to improve to win their semi-final with Lille, who completed their win over Perpignan, despite their visitors improving significantly on the first leg, even coming back from a 13-0 scoreline to lead at one point before three sin bins turned the game finally to the advantage of the Northerners.

Christelle Le Duff, newly restored to the French XV team, got Perpignan on the scoreboard with a well worked try after a strong surge down the left by Lucie Sagols and some clever footwork and hands from Victoria Bobo, in the team for Marie Alice Yahe. Julie Billes then narrowed the gap still more with a second try, but it could not last. Cards for Sagols and Billes allowed Lille back into the game, eventually running out winners by 43-28.

The tournament now goes into hibernation for the Six Nations, with the semi-finals and relegation play-offs not taking place until 13th and 20th April.