Montpellier dethrone Toulouse
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:05
Toulouse took home the Shield of Brennus from Stade de France, Kings of French Rugby. In their next championship match they lost at Stade Yves-du-Manoir to Montpellier and took home just a solitary bonus point.
It was not a great match - a scruffy thing of multitudinous penalties, especially at the breakdown, and scrums. Toulouse were penalised 17 times and it would have been worse had two penalties against them not been reversed.
It was also a crabby match. Early on there was warfare when Byron Kelleher did his best to keep the ball from Montpellier after his side had been penalised. The penalty was eventually reversed because Fulgence Ouedraogo, the Montpellier captain, had pushed Kelleher out of frustration though the languid referee did not seem to mind the intrusion of Florian Fritz.
Montpellier applied the early pressure in the match as twice Clément Poitrenaud bungled but Toulouse scored first when Thierry Brana made a horrible hash of an up-and-under by Kelleher. Poitrenaud grabbed the ball and gave to Cédric Heymans who sped over for the try. 5-0.
They made it 8-0 after a reversed penalty under the Montpellier posts. The referee had penalised Fabien Pelous but Michel Macurdy had much to say and was sent to the sin bin. Elissalde goaled. 8-0. That became 8-3 when Federico Todeschini goaled after compatriot Patricio Albacete had been penalised at a tackle.
When Byron Kelleher was sent to the sin bin for an offence at a tackle. Todeschini missed the relatively easy kick but in Kelleher's absence Montpellier scored a winning ten points.
Half-time came at 8-3 and early in the second half Elissalde was short and wide with a penalty attempt. Then Toulouse gave Montpellier the gift of a try. Their hands throughout the match were fragile, which accounted largely for the great number of scrums to Montpellier. This time they were going left and Albacete passed but he passed to compatriot Todeschini who set off immediately. Hemmed in the dapper flyhalf gave to Brana who swerved inside Poitrenaud to score near the posts. Todeschini converted. 10-8 to Montpellier after 43 minutes.
When captain Jean Bouilhou was penalised at a tackle, Todeschini made it 13-8.
After Todeschini went off injured, platinum blond Irishman Mark McHugh missed with a penalty but soon afterwards his burst set Montpellier on an expansive attack. There was the possibility of a penalty try when Gaffie Du Toit tackled Olivier Sarramea without the ball but only a five-metre scrum resulted. Du Toit was then well wide with a penalty attempt as the clock neared the final whistle.
With seven minutes to go, McHugh goaled a penalty from the join of the 10-metre line and the five-metre line from touch. It was a magnificent kick. 16-8.
Soon afterwards Ouedraogo was penalised for being offside at a scrum near the posts and Du Toit goaled. 16-11.
After the siren went Toulouse played their best rugby of the match as they went wide backwards and forwards through many phases till Kelleher knocked on at the base of a tackle/ruck, and the final whistle went.
Montpellier enjoyed the result, their second successive win over mighty Toulouse.
Scorers:
For Montpellier:
Try: Brana
Con: Todeschini
Pens: Todeschini 2, McHugh
For Toulouse:
Try: Heymans
Pens: Elissalde, Du Toit
Teams:
Montpellier: 15 Mark McHugh, 14 Thomas Brana, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Grant Rees, 11 Olivier Sarramea, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Julien Tomas, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Johan Wasserman, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo (captain), 5 Drikus Hancke, 4 Michel Macurdy, 3 Eugene van Staden, 2 Joan Caudullo, 1 Danie Thiart.
Replacements: 16 Fabien Rofes, 17 Pietman
van Niekerk, 18 Bruce Douglas, 19 Jérôme Vallée, 20 Mamuka Gorgodze, 21 Justin Marshall, 22 François Trinh-Duc, 23 Frikkie Welsh.
Toulouse: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Manu Ahotaeiloa, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 Jean Baptiste Elissalde, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Shaun Sowerby, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Fabien Pelous (captain), 3 Salvatore Perugini, 2 William Servat, 1 Daan Human.
Replacements: Bertus Swanepoel, Virgile Lacombe, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Yohan Montès, Romain Millo-Chluski, Grégory Lamboley, Gaffie du Toit, Yannick Nyanga.
Referee: Jean-Pierre Matheu
Touch judges: Eric Briquet Campin, René Bordeneuve
Assessor: Michel Sicard, Michel Messan
Television match official: Serge Marzullo
