Lyon and Racing 92 stayed in touch with the Top 14‘s frontrunners after claiming victories over Stade Français and Montpellier respectively on Sunday.
Lyon 41-6 Stade Français
Matmut Stadium de Gerland, Lyon
The home side claimed an emphatic win over their more fancied rivals although things did not always go their way and the match was evenly balanced early on with the sides deadlocked at 6-6 at half-time.
The opening half was tightly contested and the visitors held a slender 6-0 lead after former Springbok fly-half Morne Steyn slotted two penalties.
Lyon would finish the half stronger though and replied with two penalties from Lionel Beauxis shortly before the interval.
The second-half saw Lyon upping the ante on attack and they went in front courtesy of a Toby Arnold try, who did well to gather a long pass from Beauxis before crosssing the whitewash.
Beauxis added the extras which gave his side a 13-6 lead and in the 62nd minute they went further ahead when Albertus Buckle went over from close quarters after Deon Fourie did well in the build-up.
With their tails up, Lyon became more adventurous on attack while Stade lost their defensive shape.
The Parisian outfit suffered a setback in the 72nd minute when Mathieu De Giovanni was yellow carded for a professional foul deep inside his 22 which also resulted in a penalty try against his side.
Two minutes later, Charlie Ngatai intercepted a wayward Stade pass before racing away to score his side’s fourth try and in the 78th minute Noa Nakaitaci sealed the home side’s win when he crossed for their fifth five-pointer.
The scorers:
For Lyon:
Tries: Arnold, Buckle, Penalty try, Ngatai, Nakaitaci
Cons: Beauxis 3, Doussain
Pens: Beauxis 2
For Stade Français:
Pens: Steyn 2
Yellow Card: De Giovanni
Lyon: 15 Jean-Marcellin Buttin, 14 Toby Arnold, 13 Rudi Wulf, 12 Charlie Ngatai, 11 Noa Nakaitaci, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Jonathan Pélissié, 8 Carl Fearns, 7 Patrick Sobela, 6 Julien Puricelli, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Clément Ric, 2 Mickael Ivaldi, 1 Raphael Chaume
Replacements: 16 Jeremie Maurouard, 17 Albertus Buckle, 18 Hendrik Roodt, 19 Dylan Cretin, 20 Jean-Marc Doussain, 21 Deon Fourie, 22 Thibault Regard, 23 Francisco Gomez Kodela
Stade Français: 15 Kylan Hamdaoui, 14 Tony Ensor, 13 Waisea Nayacalevu, 12 Mali Hingano, 11 Lester Etien, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Clement Daguin,8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Sekou Macalou, 6 Ryan Chapuis, 5 Alexandre Flanquart, 4 Mathieu De Giovanni, 3 Paul Alo-Emile, 2 Laurent Panis, 1 Siegfried Fisi’ihoi
Replacements: 16 Laurent Sempere, 17 Lucas Da Silva, 18 Hendre Stassen, 19 Sylvain Nicolas, 20 Andre Riaan Warner, 21 Djibril Camara, 22 Jules Plisson, 23 Giorgi Melikidze
Referee: Adrien Descottes
Assistant referees: Sebastien Boyer, Bruno Gabaldon
TMO: Denis Grenouillet
Montpellier 13-27 Racing 92
GGL Stadium
Racing 92 claimed their second successive Top 14 victory when they beat Montpellier at the GGL stadium.
The visitors had the better of the early exchanges although Montpellier fought back bravely during the latter stages of the opening half, which meant Racing 92 held a slender 12-10 lead at the interval.
However, Racing regained the initiative and secured their win thanks to a try in the game’s closing stages from Antoine Gibert.
Racing made a superb start and opened the scoring as early as the seventh minute thanks to a try from Juan Imhoff after Simon Zebo set him up with a fine line break in the build up.
Finn Russell added the extras and shortly afterwards, Teddy Iribaren glided through a gap in Montpellier’s defence before scoring his side’s second try.
However, the game’s complexion changed in the 25th minute when Henry Chavancy was yellow carded for a professional foul and Montpellier were rewarded with tries from Yvan Reilhac and Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg during his stint off the field.
Racing extended their lead courtesy of a penalty from Russell in the 49th minute before Imhoff crossed for his second try after intercepting a pass from Jan Serfontein.
Russell’s conversion gave the visitors a 22-10 lead but they suffered another setback when Baptiste Chouzenoux was also sent to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball incident on the hour-mark.
Aaron Cruden slotted the resulting penalty but Racing finished stronger and sealed their win with Gibert’s try in the 79th minute.
The scorers:
For Montpellier:
Tries: Reilhac, Janse van Rensburg
Pen: Cruden
For Racing 92:
Tries: Imhoff 2, Iribaren, Gibert
Cons: Russell 2
Pens: Russell
Yellow Cards: Chouzenoux, Chavancy
Montpellier: 15 Vincent Martin, 14 Yvan Reilhac, 13 Arthur Vincent, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Gabriel Ngandebe, 10 Aaron Cruden, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Jacques Du Plessis, 7 Wian Liebenberg, 6 Martin Devergie, 5 Paul Willemse, 4 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Vincent Giudicelli, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili
Replacements: 16 Romain Ruffenach, 17 Ushangi Tcheishvili, 18 Julien Ledevedec, 19 Kevin Kornath, R 20 Julien Tomas, 21 Thomas Darmon, 22 Alexandre Dumoulin, 23 Jannie du Plessis
Racing 92: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Louis Dupichot, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Teddy Iribaren, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 6 Boris Palu, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Teddy Baubigny, 1 Guram Gogichashvili
Replacements: 16 Ole Avei, 17 Georges-Henri Colombe, 18 Leone Nakarawa, 19 Fabien Sanconnie, 20 Antoine Gibert, 21 Raphael Lagarde, 22 Olivier Klemenczak, 23 Ben Tameifuna
Referee: Pascal Gauzere
Assistant referees: Vincent Blasco-Baque, Jean-Luc Rebollal
TMO: Patrick Dellac