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Oyonnax stun Clermont with second-half fightback, La Rochelle thump Pau
By Christopher Devine
Top 14's bottom club, Oyonnax, pulled off a stunning fightback to rescue a 32-32 draw against defending champions Clermont Auvergne.
Oyonnax, who have won only once all season, looked to be heading for a thumping defeat when they trailed 29-10 at the interval at Stade Charles-Mathon on Saturday.
However, five second-half penalties from Ben Botica got the hosts right back into the game and the fly-half held his nerve to earn Oyonnax a share of the spoils, adding the extras following Axel Muller's 76th-minute try.
Botica could even have snatched victory for Oyonnax in the sixth minute of additional time, only to come up short with a drop-goal attempt.
Bordeaux-Begles and Brive also played out a draw at Stade Chaban-Delmas. Their game finished 27-27, with 40 points scored in the first half alone.
Elsewhere, La Rochelle thumped Pau 44-14 and Filipo Nakosi crossed twice in the second half as Agen ran in 26 unanswered points to beat Stade Francais 29-13.
Castres edged out Toulon 20-19 to leapfrog their opponents in the table, despite being out-scored three tries to two.
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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