France T14 - Round 2 part 1

Results

Friday

Toulouse 35 - 6 Castres

Saturday

Bayonne 38 - 12 Oyonnax
Bordeaux Bègles 30 - Racing 21
Brive 6 - 21 Clermont
Montpellier 20 - 17 Grenoble
Stade Français 23 - 20 Lyon
Toulon 60 - 19 La Rochelle
.....................
With 35 tries scored this was one of the more entertaining T14 weekends in recent seasons.

Having been been admonished by their coaches after last week's off colour display against Oyonnax, les Toulousain responded with a performance of power and panache to overwhelm Castres on Friday night. Last week's hero, Toby Flood, gave his team an early lead with a penalty. Castres responded through a Rory Kockott kick. With both kickers missing several penalties, Toulouse were grateful for some great play by Fickou to register their first try. The talented centre brushed off Max Evans brfore exchanging passes with Huget to score under the posts. Flood duly converted. A penalty apiece for Kockott and Flood completed the first half scoring, although Toulouse were denied a try by Yoann Huget after a debatable knock on call.
Soon after half time Toulouse put the result beyond doubt with two well created tries. The first came after a turnover and clever kick created an opportunity, with Jean-Marc Doussain benefitting from further good work to cross. Doussain then turned provider putting in a cross kick that Medard gathered to score. Toulouse led 25-6 but more was to come. Flood kicked another penalty and a converted Sebastien Bezy try gave the hosts a bonus point. Castres were denied a Johnnie Beattie try after a holding obstruction at a scrum.
.......................

After three away wins last week, there was just the one in round 2. It also came in the one game without a try, which surprisingly featured two normally free running teams, Brive and Clermont. On this occasion Clermont decided to use the power of their scrum to pressure Brive into conceding penalties. Morgan Parra converted the first of these, but Brive came back strongly, helped by Davit Kirashvili's sin binning, with two Gaetan Germain penalties to take the lead. Clermont were denied a Nalaga try by a superb Alfie Mafi cover tackle before Perpignan refugee Camille Lopez (taking over from Parra) kicked them level. Brive then had Petrus Hauman binned for tackling Aurelien Rougerie in the air before Clermont took the lead. A powerful surge by Nalaga set up the position from which Lopez slotted a drop goal for 9-6 at half time.
Lopez added three more penalties to move Clermont clear before Brive got their game together. However, a series of promising sorties into Clermont territory were repelled through determined defence. Another scrum penalty, resulting in Brive's Damien Jourdain seeing yellow, resulted in Lopez completing the scoring. But Clermont were not quite done. To emphasize their scrum dominance they shoved Brive back to their own 10m line from a scrum in their own 22!
...................

Bayonne responded to last week's mauling by Toulon by recording a bonus point win against Oyonnax. An early Joe Rokocoko try gave them an ideal start, Blair Stewart converting. Oyonnax scored a try of their own by Guillaume Boussès,  who was released by Benjamin Urdapilletta's offload, with the latter hitting the post with the conversion. With the visitors' Dug Cudjo seeing yellow, Bayonne took the game by the scruff of the neck. A Stewart penalty was followed by a try for Scott Spedding created by Rokocoko. Further tries followed for Gregory Arganese and Santiago Fernandez with Stewart converting all three tries. 
Oyonnax scored one of their own when an Austin Figuerola break led to Thibault Lassalle crossing. After the break Spedding added his second try with Stewart again adding the extras. That was it in terms of scoring, but Bayonne will be happy.
.......................

Bordeaux Bègles made the most of home advantage for the second week running to record a good win against Racing Metro. They took the lead with a try for prop Patrick Toetu after good work from the back row, Pierre Bernard converting. Two Jonathan Sexton penalties had Racing well in the game only for Bernard to respond with two of his own for a 13-6 lead for Bordeaux at half time.
A further Sexton three pointer closed the gap before Racing took the lead. Good work from Sexton and Henry Chavancy created the opening for Teddy Thomas to cross. Bernard nudged the hosts back in front with his third penalty before they took a decisive lead. A clever chip through by Sofiane Guitoune was gathered by Julien Rey for the dcore? Bernard improved the score for a nine point lead. Racing came back with a second try for Thomas before Guitoune's interception and try sealed the home win
....................