A season’s record 50 tries were scored in the 23rd weekend of the Top 14 season
Top 14 clubs ran in 50 tries at the weekend to set a new season touchdown record, on the 23rd round of the campaign. The week’s points total soared to 406, at an impressive average of 58 points per match.
Despite the high totals, bonus points were few and far between this week. Montpellier picked up a losing bonus, while Bordeaux and Toulouse were the only sides to score at least three tries more than their opponents.
Here are the top five scores, according to the league.
Results
Perpignan’s run up the table stalled; Racing 92 slipped up in Auxerre; La Rochelle cling on to the last of the play-off places after a night to forget, and Montpellier snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It was a good week for Bordeaux and Toulouse, but Castres’ coach Jeremy Davidson’s admission that their victory “wasn’t good for the heart” may well go down as an understatement.
Stade Francais’ flight to Toulouse for Sunday night’s Clasico, meanwhile, had ended in drama. An investigation has opened after an ‘anomaly on the landing gear position indicator’ triggered an emergency landing procedure.
Match of the weekend: Racing 92 28 Bayonne 37
Plenty of choice, this week, as there were some cracking matches. Castres-Montpellier, for example, was a nerve-shredder for fans of either side, while Clermont’s Challenge Cup run-renewed confidence was on show for all to see at Perpignan.
But an utterly ridiculous eight-try family affair kicked off the weekend in Auxerre – where Racing have decamped for the remainder of the season because Taylor Swift and the Olympic Games’ organisers have baggsed La Defense Arena for now.
Seven of the eight tries came in the first half. Josua Tuisova scored 25 seconds into his long-awaited Racing debut after recovering from his World Cup injury.
Gael Fickou scored two – his first came five minutes after Tuisova’s opener. Auxerre’s favourite rugby son Camille Chat also scored as Stuart Lancaster’s side raced into a 21-7 lead inside 23 minutes.
But then former Racing hero Maxime Machenaud scored twice in two minutes, to level matters after Bayonne fullback Tom Spring – brother of Racing’s starting 15 Max – had got the visitors on the board.
And then, on 38 minutes, Bayonne threw caution, and sense, to the wind, Guillaume Martocq running in a 100m touchdown from a scrum on their own line. It was breathless, brilliant stuff.
The second-half was somewhat quieter – Fickou’s second try after 49 minutes and two Camille Lopez penalties were the only movements on the scoreboard. But, after the opening 40, it was something of a relief…
Individual performance
Damian Penaud. Who else? The France winger had one of those Saturday nights, as Bordeaux beat La Rochelle 34-14 to be crowned “kings of the Atlantic” by Midi Olympique’s splash writer, as his rookie season at Chaban-Delmas goes from good to better to brilliant.
He made a complete mess of La Rochelle’s scrambling defence for Yoram Moefana’s try, set up the brilliant end-to-end score for Louis Bielle-Biarrey with a quick tap penalty on Bordeaux’s own 5m line, and finished an even more dramatic one in the second half, chasing down Matthieu Jalibert’s long hoof upfield, and beating Gregory Alldritt to the ball in the visitors’ in-goal area.
He now has 16 tries in 14 outings since arriving at Bordeaux after the Rugby World Cup, and 26 in 25 including international matches since August.
Remember when he was a misplaced centre who ‘wasn’t good enough’ to play on the wing?
Flop
It’s hard to choose the best catastrophe adjective to describe Montpellier’s season. They all fit so well. With three rounds to go, they are stuck in 13th, the survival play-off place, seven points behind 12th-placed Lyon.
This club boasts a €30million operating [not playing] budget – more than that of higher-ranked sides Pau, Castres, Bayonne and Perpignan, and getting on for double that of the only side below them in the table, Oyonnax.
And, there are 24 internationals on the senior squad, as former sporting director Philippe Saint-Andre mentioned this week as he slapped a broadside return at current holder of his position, Bernard Laporte.
On Saturday afternoon, they were 10 points up at Castres after 18 minutes, and – after the home side had briefly levelled the scores before halftime – 10 points up again after 42 minutes, and lost 27-26.
And they really should have been further ahead. Leo Coly, who started at scrum-half and moved out to fly-half when Cobus Reinach came on at the end of the first-half, missed two conversions, a penalty, and fired what would probably have been the match-winning drop kick wide.
Gavin Mortimer had a bash at explaining the long-running malaise at Montpellier for RugbyPass Plus. I’m not entirely certain he got it all – Mohed Altrad has already spoken about the possibility of a relegation play-off. But there’s very definitely something rotten in the state of MHR.
Coaching call
Keeping Antoine Dupont on the bench is … ballsy? Selecting him and then not playing him could be argued as being a waste of squad space.
But Paul Graou has rapidly turned into the dream understudy to the world’s best scrum-half at Toulouse. So much so that, in Sunday night’s ‘Clasico’ against Stade Francais at Ernest Wallon, Dupont ultimately wasn’t needed – and had to watch his team-mates win 49-18 to climb to the top of the table.
Head coach Ugo Mola swapped around a large portion of his squad with one eye on the Champions Cup final against Leinster in London on May 25.
Romain Ntamack and Paul Costes were among those spared getting changed out of civvies altogether. Dupont, meanwhile, made up one-eighth of a high-talent bench, sitting alongside Francois Cros, Emmanuel Meafou and Peato Mauvaka.
And he just sat there. Getting more and more frustrated. Toulouse are at Montpellier next weekend – what are the odds on him getting more rest, and even more frustrated, next weekend, ahead of the trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium?
Talking point
Canal Plus’s hot-take outrage merchant Richard Dourthe created a polemic in a teacup over Jalibert’s ‘goading’ of Gregory Alldritt after Damian Penaud’s try in Bordeaux’s win over La Rochelle on Sunday.
Forget that. A rub on the head, a pat on the chest and a few choice words – from an excitable boy who has form for getting carried away – aren’t worthy of brouhaha that followed.
The bigger issue was at Stade Aime Giral, where Perpignan lost to Clermont, bringing a five-match winning streak – and a nine-game home run – to a screeching halt. Referee Jeremy Rozier, who comes from Clermont-Ferrand, was escorted off the pitch after the match, with home fans unimpressed by the yellow cards he showed to their local heroes in the 57th, 70th and 79th minutes.
The boos started after the first card, and got worse as Perpignan conceded two tries in the last 10 minutes, giving up a 28-18 lead to lose 28-35.
Franck Azema was quick to condemn the abuse from the stands. “I don’t know what there is to say about refereeing,” he said of the fans’ outrage immediately afterwards. “It’s inappropriate. I hope nobody hides behind this.”
And he later apologised again in an interview with radio station France Bleu, with the club certain to be summoned to a disciplinary hearing that almost certainly will lead to a fine, and could even mean the club has to play a match behind closed doors. “We can have fervour, enthusiasm and passion, but not in this way.”
He went on: “The referee makes decisions, it’s not easy, there’s a lot of pressure at Aime Giral. He made a few mistakes, yes. But, first and foremost, we were the ones at fault. We’ve talked about it among ourselves and we’ll have to put things right.”
Quote of the week
“To be called a crook by Bernard Laporte, I take that as a compliment.”
Montpellier’s former sporting director Saint-Andre, who has been linked with an overarching role at Lyon in recent weeks, responded to his successor’s comments about the make-up of the Montpellier squad this season.
Laporte had said: “This team is completely unbalanced – whoever built this team is a crook . I’ve always said it, it’s unacceptable, because we’re paying for it.”
Saint-Andre shot back: “There are 24 internationals in the squad, including 12 Frenchmen. There were 26 before, but … Bernard Laporte chose to let go of Henry Thomas, French champion with us in 2022 [as well as] Tolu Latu, an Australian international who left for La Rochelle, and Paolo Garbisi … who, in my opinion, is one of the best fly-halves in Europe.”
Table
Toulouse climbed above Stade Francais to claim top spot with three rounds of the season remaining, but the real battles are further down the standings.
La Rochelle are hanging on to the sixth and final play-off spot, with Pau, Castres, and Perpignan chasing hard – perhaps even Clermont have an outside shot.
Despite their loss at Toulon, 12th-place Lyon have a seven-point cushion on Montpellier, and host a hurting Racing 92 next weekend at fortress Gerland.
By the time they head to the GGL for the penultimate round of the season, it could all be over.
It isn’t now, though…
My name is James Harrington. I’m a freelance sports journalist, writing mostly about French club and international rugby. If, after reading this, you feel the urge to commission me for match previews, reviews, articles, news, features, interviews, live blogs, feel free to contact me
And, please read my weekly French rugby column in The Rugby Paper every Sunday. And I also round-up all the weekend’s Top 14 action on the Irish Examiner website.
James Harrington: Rugby writer and freelance sports journalist 
James Harrington: Rugby writer and freelance sports journalist
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