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TOP 14 ROUNDUP: Stade Francais hold off big fightback
By Russell Greaves
Stade Francais laid down a marker in Saturday's impressive 35-24 win over last season's Top 14 table-toppers La Rochelle.
The European Challenge Cup winners, who finished seventh last term, produced a stunning first-half display and held off a fightback from the visitors to put aside the disappointment of their opening-game loss to Lyon.
Greg Cooper's side were irresistible in the first 40 minutes, leaving La Rochelle to nurse a 30-7 half-time deficit as the great Sergio Parisse dotted down after Antoine Burban, Alexandre Flanquart, and Tony Ensor had crossed the whitewash.
La Rochelle, winners over Brive in their season opener, proved a greater threat after the interval, but Afa Amosa's five-pointer and a late penalty try, adding to Dany Priso's first-half score, were not enough to forge a route back into the contest, with Marvin O'Connor responding for the hosts.
Le tour d'honneur des vainqueurs du jour #SFPSR #SFParis pic.twitter.com/PxgSs9iPro
— Stade Français Paris (@SFParisRugby) September 2, 2017
Newly promoted Agen got their first win of the season as Racing 92 succumbed to a 23-19 loss, while Castres overcame Bordeaux-Begles 33-19.
Elsewhere, Lyon downed Brive 29-14, Montpellier clocked up 21 unanswered second-half points to thrash Oyonnax 37-6, and Pau remain pointless following a 23-19 defeat to Toulouse.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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