Toulouse escapes, Lyon surprises, the French stadium clashes
The 7th day of the Top 14 delivered its share of surprises on Saturday, with the victory of Lyon at the champion of France Montpellier and that of the French Stadium in Pau in a stunning final, while the leader Toulouse, in Brive, and Castres, in home, insured as expected.
. Toulouse Assomme Brive
Stade Toulousain confirmed its first place (28 points) by winning a clear and flawless victory in Brive (45-7), signing six tries, including a double from Arthur Retière. The only negative point for Antoine Dupont’s teammates is the injured exit of their international back Melvyn Jaminet, injured in an ankle.
Stunned by the red and black machine, the Corrèze club, which suffered its fifth defeat, for its part sinks into the bottom of the standings (11th, 11 pts).
. Lyon surprises the champion of France
Xavier Garbajosa’s men surprised the Montpellier champions (33-26) at the GGL Stadium, who have had a third defeat in a row (8th, 15 pts) and will have to question themselves before going to Racing 92 in the next daytime.
This success, which confirms the good dynamic of Les Gones after their victory against Bordeaux-Bègles, will allow LOU to be able to breathe a little (7th, 17 pts).
. Castres continues at home
Castres, finalist last season, chained a 25th match without defeat in his den of Pierre-Fabre, dominating Bayonne (39-22), thanks in particular to a festival of his opener Benjamin Urdapilletta, 22 points all by himself and 100% success on foot.
At half-time (16-16), the Basques (9th, 13 pts) could still believe it but Pierre-Henry Broncan’s men started the second, well helped by the yellow card from Bayonnais Rasaku and a penalty try granted by the referee to the Tarnais.
. The inverted French Stade Pau
Largely behind at half-time (7-29), seeming disoriented, then outnumbered after the red card translated to its third line Argentine Marcos Kremer in the 58th minute, the French Stadium was able to show pride in the Hameau for finally overthrow Pau by a bit (31-29) and climb to… provisional 2nd place (18 pts)!
Enough to feed deep regrets for the Section which, after seeing all its points scored in the first period, fell completely asleep on returning from the locker room and camped in the penultimate place (9 pts) of the championship, aligning a fourth defeat of rank.
Clermont went for his part to win at Aimé-Giral on the red lantern Perpignan (20-10), in a rather dull match but which allows the Auvergnats to temporarily climb on the podium (3rd, 18 pts).
Matchday 7 continues into the evening (9:05 p.m.) with UBB (12th) meeting Racing 92 (10th) while the closing game on Sunday will see La Rochelle (4th) host Toulon (5th), in a Marcel-Deflandre stadium once again sold out.