Ford and Toulon bashed by best attack in Top14
Rookie prop Tudor Stroe won an improbable bonus point for Castres in their 34-17 victory over Toulon. That’s because, as a young newcomer to the Top 14, he sat and watched from the bench until two minutes from the end of normal time.
He was thrown into the fray just to give him a taste of the big time a few days beyond his 22nd birthday.
And, with the ref waiting to blow his whistle deep into added time, Stroe somehow found the ball in his hands to record a fourth try for Castres.
An unforgettable moment for him, but one which Mike Ford, not long installed as Toulon boss, will have no cause to remember.
Depleted by international calls, Toulon were never a match for the best home attack in the country.
South African centre Robert Ebersohn, recruited from Montpellier, scored two of the Castres tries and was unlucky not to have a hat-trick when denied by a video replay seconds before Stroe came on.
Full-back Geoffrey Palis helped himself to the other try for a personal total of 19 points.
His performance drew painful comparisons with Toulon counterpart Ayumu Goromaru, the Japanese World Cup star taken off early in the second half after minimal impact on the game.
Fly-half Pierre Bernard, a signing from Bordeaux-Begles, kicked with precision for Toulon whose only try was carried over the line in a maul by substitute hooker Jean-Charles Orioli.
La Rochelle, the sensations of French rugby, met Bordeaux-Begles with a record of taking at least a point from all of their 11 matches and of scoring on average more points in their five away games than the hosts.
Those statistics are for the dusty archives now after Bordeaux’s resounding 26-0 success gave them their sixth win in seven games, so announcing them as genuine contenders for honours.
Both teams had won their last two games and at half-time were separated only by two penalties from Bordeaux fly-half Simon Hickey.
Hickey then kicked two more before a careless gesture from Fijian back-rower Jone Qovu, a half-time substitute, proved costly for La Rochelle. He barged into a ruck with his shoulder to receive a yellow card which provoked almost instantly a try from Bordeaux prop Sebastien Taofifuena. He went off late to an ovation and was replaced by experienced Jean-Baptiste Poux.
And, two minutes from time, Poux repeated the dose to leave La Rochelle wondering what had hit them.
Bernard Jackman, the Irish team boss of Grenoble, is up before the beaks for slating the ref after their narrow loss last week to Bordeaux.
His team are in trouble, too, losing all their away games to find themselves in the relegation zone.
But their latest defeat by 29-24 at champions Racing should restore a chunk of pride.
Racing, still shorn of fly-half Dan Carter with a calf injury, settled for an attritional combat, their first three tries carried over by forwards Yannick Nyanga, Dimitri Szarzewski and Francois van der Merwe.
By contrast, Grenoble went for broke and were kept in the game at the break by a wonderful try from their own 22, flanker Fabien Alexandre concluding brilliant work from winger Armand Batlle.
Despite losing influential full-back Gio Aplon to injury early in the second half, Grenoble even took the lead with a try from substitute hooker Laurent Bouchet.
A try from Racing centre Henry Chavancy threatened to leave Grenoble with nothing yet again, but their courage was rewarded towards the close when Irish centre Chris Farrell went over to secure only the second bonus point on their travels.
Lyon were another low-placed team to challenge their betters with a 16-13 defeat at Clermont, beaten themselves at bottom club Bayonne the week before.
With more accurate kicking from fly-half Jacques-Louis Potgieter, they would probably have won. As it was, they were tied at 13-13 when the siren sounded.
There remained just enough time for Morgan Parra, positioned at flyhalf for the first time in his Clermont career, to break Lyon hearts with a drop kick.
Clermont had increased a narrow lead with a try from lock Arthur Iturria just after the interval but were down to 14 men when No.8 Fritz Lee was yellow carded for a high tackle on scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud.
Couilloud gained his revenge with a try that brought the teams level.
Lyon look ready to stay up after performing well against both Toulon and Montpellier. As for Clermont, who cannot wait to have all their internationals back, they are just grateful Parra was not called up.
Brive, beaten only by Clermont at home this season, produced a typically powerful performance to beat Pau 38-25.
Pau, whose win over Racing, brought an end to four successive losses, were still competitive by half-time with a try from fly-half Charly Malie cancelling one from winger Benjamin Lapeyre.
But the restart was painful as Brive ran in three tries in 17 minutes through Fijian centre Seremaia Burotu, fly-half Nicolas Bezy and American winger Takudzwa Ngwenya.
Full-back Gaetan Germain confirmed his place as the Top 14’s leading scorer with another 18 points kicked. That meant that Pau’s late rally with tries from Kiwi prop Chris King and winger Marvin Lestremau was no more than a footnote.
“Bernard Jackman, the Irish team boss of Grenoble, is up before the beaks for slating the ref after their narrow loss last week to Bordeaux”