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It's a sense of shame - Bayonne chief dismayed by Toulon humiliation
By Harry West
Toulon ran in 12 tries in their Top 14 demolition of Bayonne, whose sporting director Nicolas Morlaes was left feeling embarrassed following their 82-14 annihilation.
The three-time European champions crossed the whitewash seven times in the first half and on five more occasions after the interval - Bryan Habana, Juan Smith, Axel Muller and Liam Gill all recording braces.
That left Morlaes feeling humiliated and questioning his players' commitment as bottom-club Bayonne slipped 18 points adrift of safety.
"I don't even want to talk about rugby," he said. "It's a sense of shame that we have.
"Professional rugby players have rights but also responsibilities. The minimum required commitment wasn't there."
Leaders La Rochelle extended their advantage over second-placed Clermont Auvergne to eight points with a 38-15 defeat of Racing 92, Elliot Roudil scoring twice following earlier tries from Victor Vito and Jone Qovu.
Meanwhile, Lyon scored 18 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes to come back from 33-17 down and edge out Stade Francais 35-33 in a match that saw Taiasina Tuifua and Pascal Pape sent off for punching.
Elsewhere, Bordeaux-Begles were comfortable 46-14 winners over Grenoble and Gaetan Germain kicked all of Brive's points in their 21-19 success at home to Toulouse, for whom Toby Flood was red carded.
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Latest Comments
Totally agree. I thought SA were quite poor by their usual standards but in fairness to England they fronted up well and made life difficult for them.
Freddie Steward at fullback is literally the best 15 under a high ball in the world, he's a freak... But he's also probably the slowest professional fullback in world rugby. He shouldn't be there and I think SB may now realise that too. Steward against Kolbe and Williams was a painful watch.
Our entire attack depends on Marcus Smith. If he ever gets injured we're screwed haha. Weirdly in the second half Smith didn't receive the ball much, we started playing off 9 a lot with the centred and forwards crashing it up. He's a one man attack plan though and he's doing a good job of making scorelines look a lot better than they should. If you take Marcus out, we're not scoring tries. The attack past ten is flaccid and dead.
Go to commentsRidiculous and biased ratings. Rogers, Morgan and the front row apart, all other ratings inflated by 2 or 3 points in some cases.
Winnett is dreadful. He is too small and cannot defend. His positional play is good but size matters! For me, Rogers is the answer at 15.
You can read the same for Thomas. For me, make him a 10 and get Cardiff to play him there or move him to a Region that will do this. James has to be the 12 moving forward. When he came on, although at 13, his had physical presence and looked as if he belonged there.
Murray will come good, after all, he is still under 10 games played for region and country and is still learning the ropes.
Backrow balance still not right and Wainwright need to get off the pies!!
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