LMS (J10) | Saint-Raphaël masters Toulouse
After winning in the Coupe de France, Saint-Raphaël would like to win again to recover in the league. On the Toulouse side, the objective is to win in order to stay at the top of the rankings. It is the Var who will take the best of the Occitans and offer themselves a precious victory (36-33).
Premises set in the first act
Saint-Raphael engage and Adrien Dipanda wins the first skylight of this part. The locals impose a good rhythm at the start of the match, to which the visitors respond with a lot of work from their pivot, Frederic Peterson (4-3, 7′). The first break will be done very quickly, the people of Var being well helped by their doorman, Vincent Gerard having injured himself against Sélestat. Toulouse puts very little defensive intensity, leaves many spaces to their opponents and forces a first timeout (8-4, 10′).
A break that is not bearing fruit for the moment, the gap constantly widening in favor of the teammates of Mickael Robinthe bar of 15 goals being crossed too quickly (15-8, 22′). Everything seems to succeed in the Var in this first period, the attack proves to be very little resistance and even manages to score 20 goals in this first act (20-12, 30′).
Toulouse will have played only a quarter of an hour
the FENIX start this second period in a better way with a quick but and a stoppage on 7 meters (20-15, 32′). Although the attack is somewhat recovered just like the Toulouse goalkeeper, the defense is still in difficulty, cruelly lacking in aggressiveness, leaving too many spaces and often being penalized by two 2 minutes, like Bakary Diallo (52′). Visitors continue to gradually remember the score, Saint-Raphael no longer being as sharp as in the first half (24-20, 40′).
The tide has turned since the break and the FENIX increases in intensity, especially in attack, leads to the open door to a potential comeback. However, the lack of success and the repeated failures on the Var goalkeeper maintain a gap of 5 goals (28-23, 46′). As we approach money-time, Mickael Robin (10 stops) and Benjamin Battle continuing their work of undermining Toulouse’s hopes. The end of the match will be managed by the locals and it will be valuable points recovered by the players of Benjamin Braux (36-33, final score)
Saint-Raphaël will have achieved a complete performance against FENIX. Thanks to an excellent Benjamin Bataille (9 goals), the Var team won two in a row and showed renewed confidence. Toulouse still has a lot of work to do, especially in defense as well as in its management of away games, and this defeat before the reception of Nantes next week could be an important factor in this poster.