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Holders Stade Francais off the mark in Challenge Cup
By Harry West
Stade Francais secured their first win in this season's European Challenge Cup with a 39-24 victory at home to Krasny Yar.
The defending champions had been stunned on the opening weekend, going down 34-29 in Russia, and followed that up with a 44-7 thrashing at the hands of London Irish.
But Stade, struggling in the lower reaches of the Top 14, got back to winning ways on Friday by running in five tries to secure a bonus-point success.
The hosts led 17-12 at the break thanks to a pair of Jimmy Yobo tries and seven points from the boot of Shane Geraghty.
Krasny Yar edged in front early in the second period through Giorgi Pruidze's score, but it was all Stade thereafter as Siegfried Fisi'ihoi, Romain Martial and Julien Arias all crossed the whitewash to move the hosts up to second in Pool 4.
Elsewhere, Pool 3 leaders Pau made it three wins from three with a 40-21 victory at Agen.
And in Pool 1, the Dragons picked up their second win of the campaign with a 15-0 success at home to Enisei-STM thanks to unconverted scores from Arwel Robson, Aaron Wainwright and Adam Warren.
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Latest Comments
What a joke. Total joke and the pundits commentating, all of whom know a bit about the game, could barely disguise their contempt. Reaching for the card then pulling back when he realised a red card would carry further match suspensions is simply not his decision to make. A clear and obvious influence on the outcome of this match and indeed, the championship path.
Go to commentsI like the idea, in NZ the Ranfurly Shield and NPC coexist, both having their own bragging rights. The World Cup would be the pinnacle, but the competition and travels of these trophies would be interesting.
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