Bayonne win battle for home semi-final
Away from the bright lights of the European semi-finals, the regular season of France’s second-tier ProD2 drew to a close on Thursday in sombre mood following the untimely death of Samoan international Kelly Meafua.
The 31-year-old Montauban back row drowned in the River Tarn early on Friday, May 6, hours after helping the Tarn-et-Garonne side to victory over Narbonne in their last home game of the season.
He had plunged from a bridge on the town in the early hours, and was carried away by the strong current. Teammate Christopher Vaotoa jumped in to the water in a bid to save him, but was unable to do so.
The player’s memory was honoured with a minute’s applause before the final round’s simultaneous kick-off at all eight matches on Thursday evening.
Six sides – Mont-de-Marsan, who led for the majority of the season and were never outside the top two, are joined by Bayonne, Oyonnax, Nevers, Carcassonne and Colomiers in the end-of-season play-offs.
Nevers entertain Carcassonne on Thursday, while Oyonnax have home advantage against Colomiers on Friday in the ‘barrage’ matches, for the right to travel to Mont-de-Marsan or Bayonne in the semi-finals on Sunday, May 29. The final is a week later at Montpellier’s GGL Stadium.
The winner of that final is promoted to the Top 14 in place of Biarritz, with the losing finalist then having home advantage against either Perpignan or Brive in the promotion-relegation play-off on June 12.
At the other end of the table, Narbonne and Bourg-en-Bresse – both promoted from the third-tier Nationale 1 division at the end of last season – go straight back down. The former have been out of the survival running for some time but, after replacement hooker Clement Jullien scored just after the hour on
Thursday, Bourg led at Grenoble and – for six glorious minutes – pushed Rouen into the danger zone.
But Grenoble weren’t about to lose again at home, even though they had nothing to challenge for or escape from. Italy’s Toulouse-bound full-back Ange Capuozzo had already scored the game’s opening try for the hosts – but Bourg’s hopes quickly collapsed as lock Tanginoa Halaifonua crashed over to retake the lead for Grenoble before winger Karim Qadiri sealed their fate with a hat-trick in the closing 10 minutes to take the score to 42-17.
The win moved Grenoble above Agen into 12th place. That was the only league movement on a night which had started with a number of issues still to be resolved.
As well as the final relegation slot, Bayonne and Oyonnax – separated by head-to-head results only – were locked in a battle for secondplace, with its bye week bonus, while Aix-en-Provence had an outside chance of sneaking into the top at Colomiers’ expense; and fourth, fifth, and sixth places – which determine who plays who in the play-offs – were all up for grabs.
It was an odd night for Rouen. They were humiliated 53-13 at Bayonne – the hosts ran in eight tries to the visitors’ one to emphatically claim second place in the table. But the result at Grenoble meant that their evening ended in celebration and, no doubt, a sigh of relief for head coach Nicolas Godignon, who took over from former England scrum-half Richard Hill at the end of last season.
At the start of the final evening, Bayonne had to at least match Oyonnax’s result to remain in second. They did more than enough, as Joe El-Abd’s side delivered a strangely clumsy, nervy performance to slip to a second loss in a row, going down 25-21 at Aurillac.
Unsurprisingly, Montauban were not in the mood to play a game of rugby, days after the death of one of their players. They lost 30-6 at Nevers on an emotional evening.
Aix-en-Provence, meanwhile, did everything they could to chase down that final play-off spot. Replacement flanker Guillaume Piazzoli, 24, scored the second and third tries of his short career, two matches after he scored his first, as they beat a makeshift Mont-de-Marsan 26-13, with a try-scoring bonus. The visitors were sure of their semi-final place before kick-off and took the opportunity to rest a number of players for the play-off phase.
But their efforts were in vain, as sixth-placed Colomiers – the only side they could catch – beat Agen 21-16, who slipped to 13th in the table. Given the visitors’ terrible start to the season, losing their first seven matches after plunging out of the Top 14 at the end of the previous campaign with no wins from 26 outings, 13th will be seen as a positive starting point to head into next ProD2 season – which, it was consix firmed on Friday, will kick off around August 26.
Long-relegated Narbonne, who have won just five of their matches this season, lost their final match – at home against Vannes – 14-36. The Aude side conceded 941 points in their 30 matches back in the ProD2 after slipping out of the second-tier in 2018.
Lionel Beauxis’ last on-pitch act as a professional rugby player was to casually slot a difficult conversion from out wide to drag Beziers to within touching distance of derby visitors Carcassonne. His replacement on the night Adrien Latorre slotted a late penalty, but the hosts could not close the gap completely, losing 14-16.
So, the ProD2 season is done for 10 of 16 teams. In less than a month we’ll know if one or two sides will join the Top 14, and also which sides will be promoted from the Nationale. And then it all kicks off again at the end of August.
“Rouen were humiliated 53-13 by Bayonne but their night ended in celebration”