Stade Francais: Left it late
Stade Français edged Exeter 22-17 thanks to a 79th-minute try to centre Paul Williams in Thursday's Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final.
With the teams tied at 17-17 late in the match and extra-time beckoning, a break by scrum-half Julien Dupuy led to Williams crossing over for the decisive try to shatter the visitors' hopes at Stade Charlety in Paris.
The last-gasp victory puts the French club into this season's Amlin Challenge Cup semi-finals where they will face an away tie against either Toulon or Harlequins on April 27.
Stade Français, last year's losing finalists, ultimately proved too strong for a plucky Exeter side despite failing to dominate the game.
Chiefs fly-half Ignacio Mieres opened the scoring with a 20th minute penalty after the home side strayed offside at a ruck.
The Argentinian missed his second effort but then saw counterpart and compatriot Felipe Contepomi sin-binned soon after for reacting to a bone-crunching hit by hooker Chris Whitehead with a wild, swinging punch.
Mieres kicked the ensuing penalty, but Dupuy clawed one back for the home side after a reckless tackle by Exeter winger Gonzalo Camacho.
The respective kickers then traded penalties to leave the half-time score at 9-6 and the game delicately poised with each team failing to find their rhythm.
Stade Français came out firing on all cylinders in the second period, a dink through from Contepomi eluding the covering Phil Dollman but falling nicely for Djibril Camara, the full-back stretching to dot down in the corner for the game's first try.
Dupuy missed the conversion but hit a penalty in the 48th minute, cancelled out immediately by Mieres.
The France halfback was on target again to stretch Stade's lead to 17-12.
But with 11 mintues remaining, missed tackles from Contepomi and Dupuy allowed Exeter's Fijian centre Sireli Naqelevuki in for a soft try, Mieres missing the conversion to leave the scores tied.
The Argentinian, a former Stade Français player, then crucially missed a snatched drop-goal. The Parisians came roaring back up the pitch and Dupuy found a gap and sent out an inch-perfect pass to the fast-approaching Williams for the match-winner.
The scorers:
For Stade Français:
Tries: Camara, Williams
Pens: Dupuy 4
For Exeter Chiefs:
Try: Naqelevuki
Pens: Mieres 4
Stade Français: 15 Djibril Camara, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Morgan Turinui, 12 Paul Williams, 11 Julien Arias, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Sergio Parisse, 7 Antoine Burban, 6 George Smith, 5 Pascal Pape, 4 Anton van Zyl, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Laurent Sempere, 17 Olivier Milloud, 18 Stan Wright, 19 Alexandre Flanquart, 20 David Lyons, 21 Pierre Rabadan, 22 Jerome Fillol, 23 Hugo Bonneval.
Exeter Chiefs: 15 Phil Dollman, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Bryan Rennie, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Chris Whitehead, 1 Hoani Tui.
Replacements: 16 Neil Clark, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Chris Budgen, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Sireli Naqelevuki.
Comments
makemehappy says...
Well done to Exeter. That was at least a 15 point win to them. Not one Stade player matched his opposite number, and during the last 20 minutes, Stade were put to the sword. Sadly there was an idiot refereeing. An idiot who is utterly incompetent week in week out. There were loads of penalties that he should have give in front of the posts, and numerous yellow cards, so I agree with the sentiments expressed here.
I couldnn't careless who won the game going into it. I do care at the end. The wrong team won, and I don't want any Welsh teams to have the misfortunate of being refereed by that moron. How can he see nothing, misinterpret everything, and know none of the rules???
Posted 17:14 06th April 2012
Honestpom says...
Undeniable that a lot of calls went against Exeter but thats sport, another day the luck will be with them. Stade got away with being offside nearly all night, Exeter were well on top at scrum time which went largely unrewarded and a few other things were missed. Nonetheless Exeter missed their chance to take a 3 point lead with minutes left, Stade took theirs.Having said that this Exeter side is rewriting the clubs history seemingly on a weekly basis now. The foundations are being layed for a new English rugby dynasty along the lines of Leicester, Gloucester, Northampton etc. Brilliantly run on and off the pitch English rugby will feel the benefits in a few years time when some of the brilliant young English players currently in their academy start coming into the first XV and beyond. Devon and Cornwall is a rugby hotbed and at last it has a team to harness and develop the massive local potential.
Posted 16:03 06th April 2012
Honestpom says...
Undeniable that a lot of calls went against Exeter but thats sport, another day the luck will be with them. Stade got away with being offside nearly all night, Exeter were well on top at scrum time which went largely unrewarded and a few other things were missed. Nonetheless Exeter missed their chance to take a 3 point lead with minutes left, Stade took theirs.Having said that this Exeter side is rewriting the clubs history seemingly on a weekly basis now. The foundations are being layed for a new English rugby dynasty along the lines of Leicester, Gloucester, Northampton etc. Brilliantly run on and off the pitch English rugby will feel the benefits in a few years time when some of the brilliant young English players currently in their academy start coming into the first XV and beyond. Well done all at the Chief !
Posted 16:00 06th April 2012
NJCal says...
While I commend the ref for letting the game flow by not calling many of the infractions some were just too blatant not to call, most notably the Stade player not rolling away in front of his own posts towards the end of the game. That should have been a penalty and a card for a professional foul. That non call cost the chiefs the game.
Posted 12:22 06th April 2012
ChrisInCrete says...
keste03 - no, I really think that you can blame the ref on this one.
In continuation, not to mention the numerous Stade player on the wrong side not rolling away very near the end which should have been a penalty and yellow cards.
Any way that the referee can be cited? I'll do it, where do I send the citation to?
A player can have a bad day, but he can be replaced or hidden amongst the other 14. The ref is at the sharp end, his bad day has, at the end of it and in this case, a large prestige and financial consequence for the club.
Posted 12:10 06th April 2012
keste03 says...
@stumpy - agree, Peter Fitzgibbon had no clue tonight. Never in my life have I seen the backline offside so many times and not get penalised. But in the end, Exeter should have taken their chances - they cant blame the ref for this loss, they had the opportunities
Posted 07:17 06th April 2012
stumpy says...
Must say theres a fair case that the referee cost Exeter the game. He allowed Stade to slow down the game illegally at key points in the first half where Exeter were almost destined to score tries. Another referee would have spotted that these offences deserved penalties and cards. He also didn't grant the Exeter scrum the rewards it deserved. These are just to name a few examples...
Posted 00:17 06th April 2012