Smith, Whitelock’s Pau languishing near bottom of Top 14

THINGS are not going particularly smoothly for last year’s Highlanders cocaptains.

Ben Smith and Luke Whitelock are both playing for Pau in the French Top 14 league.

Pau is an ambitious club which has high hopes for this season. But not all is going to plan and the side now sits near the bottom of the table.

The steam has lost its past five Top 14 games, the latest a 3326 defeat to Brive.

Smith and Whitelock have yet to play in a winning side for Pau in the Top 14.

Smith played fullback in the Brive loss while Whitelock did not take the paddock.

Pau was at one stage leading by more than a dozen points but Brive scored a couple of quick tries near the end to win the game.

Pau now sits in 11th place, just three points ahead of bottomplaced team Stade

Francais.

The bottom team is relegated from the Top 14 while the 13thplaced team goes into a promotionrelegation playoff match.

Smith has been playing fullback and has been in good form, media reports say.

The side has won a couple of games in the past few weeks through victories in the European Challenge Cup competition.

Pau finished second in its Challenge Cup group behind Leicester but in the cutthroat competition, in which only eight teams make it from 20,

Pau missed out on points differential to the Llanelli Scarlets.

The Top 14 competition will now go into hiatus for three weeks for the Six Nations competition which starts this weekend.

Smith, the most capped Highlander of all time with 153 caps, has signed just a oneseason deal with Pau and there are suggestions he is heading to the Japanese Top league for a couple of seasons.

Whitelock, who turns 29 today, has signed a threeyear deal with Pau.