Pau send Stade Francais packing as Falcons fly into semis
Defending champions Stade Francais were knocked out of the European Challenge Cup in a thrilling quarter-final as Top 14 rivals Pau claimed a 35-32 victory.
Stade are battling against relegation from France's top flight in the midst of a miserable campaign, but came close to pulling off a remarkable fightback against a Pau side jockeying for a play-off spot in the same division.
Pau reached the quarters as the top seed having won all six of their pool matches and they led 27-14 at the break thanks to tries from Jale Vatubua, Benson Stanley and Thibault Daubagna.
Jules Plisson converted a penalty after the restart and then converted a Djibril Camara try to cut the gap to three points, but Quentin Lespiaucq crossed to re-establish Pau's command.
Plisson and Tom Taylor then traded penalties before Marvin O'Connor went over a minute from time for Stade, who ran out of time to complete a turnaround as Pau set up a semi-final clash with either Edinburgh or Cardiff Blues.
Newcastle Falcons' excellent season continued as they breezed into the semis with a 25-10 win over Brive.
The Falcons, who are fourth in the Premiership as they bid to secure a place in the play-offs, edged the first half at Kingston Park before finding another gear in the second to progress to the last four.
Fly-half Toby Flood struggled with the boot, knocking over just one conversion, but set up three of Newcastle's four tries in an instrumental performance.
A pair of magnificent passes saw him lay on a brace for Alex Tait as the Newcastle's own 100 per cent record in the competition was maintained, with Connacht or Gloucester awaiting them in the semis.
Latest Comments
wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
Go to comments