Lyon finally break their Champions Cup duck

LYON cruised to their first ever win in the Heineken Champions Cup at Matmut Stadium de Gerland after eight successive defeats in the competition and also registered a late bonus point.

The Top 14 leaders finally translated their outstanding domestic form onto the European scene, running in four tries in the first meeting between the clubs to climb off the bottom of Pool 1.

Lyon full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin scored the first try after only two minutes following a scrum deep in the visiting 22.

Five minutes later it was 12-0 as a poor defensive kick from Benetton allowed Lyon to unleash a devastating counter-attack from just outside their 22, which centre Charlie Ngatai finished off near the posts. Jonathan Wisniewski converted.

Benetton then rallied but without really threatening the Lyon line and after Wisniewski had kicked a 17th minute penalty, the home side chalked up their third try on 27 minutes when left wing Xavier Mignot rounded off a fine move to dot

down in the corner.

That Lyon’s only score after that until the 74th minute was a 67th penalty goal from replacement flyhalf Pato Fernandez was due to a mixture of outstanding Benetton defence and a series of handling errors from the French team.

Marco Barbini saw yellow for Benetton in the incident that led to the Fernandez penalty, and Lyon took advantage of their superior numbers when replacement flanker Liam Gill plunged over from a driving line-out wide on the right.

The teams meet again in Treviso on December 14.