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Montpellier see off plucky Oyonnax, Ashton stars in Stade mauling
By Peter Thompson
Top 14 leaders Montpellier scored six tries in a 43-30 victory at bottom side Oyonnax and Chris Ashton grabbed a first-half hat-trick as Toulon's thumped Stade Francais 43-5 on Saturday.
Nemani Nadolo went over twice in the first half following a Benjamin Fall score and a penalty try for Vern Cotter's men, who marched into a 29-16 half-time advantage at Stade Charles-Mathon.
Gregory Fichten and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg touched down after the interval, five-pointers from Curtis Browning, Daniel Ikpefan and Ulupano Seuteni and 15 points from Ben Botica proving to be in vain for the front-runners.
Ashton was the star of the show in Toulon's rout of sorry Stade, the former England wing claiming a treble before the interval at Stade Mayol.
Mathieu Bastareaud, Eric Escande and Raphael Lakafia also went over the whitewash as the three-time European champions moved up to fourth spot and Stade suffered a second successive mauling after being hammered by Pau last time out.
Gael Fickou helped himself to a hat-trick as Toulouse put Agen to the sword, easing to a 52-25 win at Stade Armandie.
There was also a double for Yoann Huget for fifth-placed Toulouse, who scored eight tries against the second-bottom side.
Sixth-placed Lyon struck a blow to Clermont Auvergne's play-off hopes with a 36-10 win, while Pau beat Brive 21-16.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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