UBB hold off Grenoble

Editor

Bordeaux-Bègles moved momentarily fifth in the Top 14 after a narrow away win over Grenoble, winning 20-14 at the Stade des Alpes.

Armand Battle scored two tries for the hosts including a late effort to give Grenoble a fighting chance of snatching the result, before Pierre Bernard's penalty settled the contest.

Grenoble went down to 14 men after an early yellow card for Steven Setephano for collapsing the maul, and minutes later Simon Hickey put UBB ahead 3-0.

Adam Ashley-Cooper improved that lead when he won the race to a kick ahead from Baptiste Serin ahead of the covering Charl McLeod, Hickey converting from out wide to make it 10-0.

UBB went in ahead at half-time by the same scoreline and doubled their try tally thanks to Sofiane Guitoune's score chasing another Serin kick ahead.

Hickey's conversion had UBB ahead 17-0 before Grenoble finally crossed the line, Mahamadou Diaby's break setting the replacement up for his first try, converted by Gilles Bosch.

So it stayed until the final few minutes until Battle went in for his second, doing brilliantly to gather Bosch's bouncing kick in the corner with the fly-half converting.

Bernard's 80th-minute penalty however put the result beyond doubt, as Bordeaux-Begles put the result beyond doubt.

The scorers:

For Grenoble:
Tries: Battle 2
Cons: Bosch 2
Yellow Card: Setephano

For UBB:

Tries: Ashley-Cooper, Guitoune

Cons: Hickey 2
Pens: Hickey, Bernard

Grenoble: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Xavier Mignot, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Lucas Dupont, 10 Gilles Bosch, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Rory Grice, 7 Mahamadou Diaby, 6 Steven Setephano, 5 Thomas Jolmes, 4 Ben Hand, 3 Rossouw De Klerk, 2 Arnaud Heguy, 1 Sona Taumalolo
Replacements: 16 Loick Jammes, 
17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Mathias Marie, 19 Dylan Hayes, 20 Lilian Saseras, 21 Fabien Gengenbacher, 22 Armand Battle, 23 Dayna Edwards

UBB: 15 Metuisela Talebula, 14 Sofiane Guitoune, 13 Jean-Baptiste Dubie, 12 Julien Rey, 11 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 10 Simon Hickey, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Loann Goujon, 7 Luke Braid, 6 Matthew Clarkin, 5 Jan Andre Marais, 4 Julien Ledevedec, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Clément Maynadier, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 Benat Auzqui, 
17 Sébastien Taofifenua, 18 Cyril Cazeaux, 19 Louis-Benoit Madaule, 20 Gauthier Doubrere, 21 Pierre Bernard, 22 Romain Lonca, 23 Francisco Gomez Kodela

Referee: Alexandre Ruiz