Try for Biarritz: Damien Traille
Biarritz continued their perfect start to the Top 14 season with a 22-17 win over defending champions Toulouse at Parc des Sports d'Aguilera on Saturday.
The result leaves Biarritz at the top of the standings thanks to three wins in as many games this season.
A late try from Vicent Clerc saved a bonus point for Toulouse.
The hosts took an early lead and the held on under pressure for a tough victory.
Veteran centre Damian Traille was the home side's try-scorer, dotting down after 29 minutes following a fine break from Welsh winger Aled Brew.
The rest of the Biarritz points came from the boot of fly-half Jean-Pascal Barraque with a conversion and five penalties.
For Toulouse it was a first defeat of the season after two unconvincing wins and left coach Guy Novès with some selection headaches.
In what was the first big showdown of the new season, Biarritz ran out onto a sun-splashed Aguilera stadium minus stars Dimitri Yachvili and Imanol Harinordoquy, both of whom are on the injured list.
Reigning champions Toulouse were without All Black fly-half Luke McAlister, who has a bruised calf, but were able to welcome back France skipper Thierry Dusautoir along with first team regulars Jean Bouilhou and Gary Botha.
An early rash of penalties saw Biarritz take a 6-3 lead, despite the visitors making most of the running in the hot and windy conditions.
They then scored the game's first try after 31 minutes when the dangerous Brew broke clear from midfield following a line-out and turned inside to feed Traille, who scored under the posts.
A further exchange of penalties between fly-halves Barraque and Lionel Beauxis saw half-time reached with Biarritz enjoying a healthy, if slightly undeserved, 16-6 lead.
Toulouse continued to dominate possession into the second half with Biarritz put under further pressure by South African prop Wikus Blaauw getting a yellow card, but all they had to show for their efforts were two penalties from Beauxis.
Barraque then extended the home lead again to 19-12 after 57 minutes with the Toulouse forwards penalised at a line-out and he made it 22-12 10 minutes later, sending over his fifth penalty out of six attempts.
Toulouse finally crossed the Biarritz line after 77 minutes when Clerc dashed over in the corner after a looping pass from Beauxis, but the fly-half missed the conversion.
That gave the visitors a defensive bonus point but there was not enough time left for them to pull ahead.
The scorers:
For Biarritz:
Try: Traille
Cons: Traille
Pens: Barraque 5
For Toulouse:
Try: Clerc
Pens: Beauxis 4
Yellow cards: Blaauw (Biarritz - 44th min- collapsing scrum)
Biarritz: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya , 13 Charles Gimenez , 12 Damien Traille , 11 Aled Brew , 10 Jean pascal Barraque , 9 Yann Lesgourgues 8 Raphael Lakafia 7 Thibault Dubarry 6 Wenceslas Lauret 5 Pelu ian Taele 4 Jerome Thion 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela 2 Arnaud Heguy 1 Johannes Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Jean philippe Genevois , 17 Fabien Barcella , 18 Erik Lund, 19 Magnus Lund, 20 Julien Peyrelongue, 21 Benoit Baby, 22 Seremaia nakala Burotu, 23 Eugene Van staden,
Toulouse: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yann David, 12 Florian Fritz, 11 Yoann Huget, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Romain Millo chlusky, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Gary Botha, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Jean batiste Poux, 18 Gregory Lamboley, 19 Yannick Nyanga, 20 Jean marc Doussain, 21 Yannick Jauzion, 22 Jean bernard Pujol, 23 Antoine Guillamon.
Comments
Toulousain says...
on est d'accord pierredelot1, michalak would not be the right call. and i agree with your sentiment about ST becoming boring. it breaks my heart to see it. maybe some youthful exuberance would help as papachinzo says. but, noves is stuck because he also doesn't want to lose any games unnecessarily. T14 is very closely contested these days. every point matters. he will be furious today i imagine. this game shld have been won by ST. they did everything except convert points. the only moments they tried to "play" led to Traille's try, or spilled ball. more time practising moves and less time in the gym would help !!
allez!!
Posted 11:03 02nd September 2012
pierredelot1 says...
Oh dear, Beauxis since his arrival at Toulouse has failed to find any form with ball in hand. At 21 he was the outstanding young No 10 in the world, exciting, incisive. Then at a later date off he trots to Stade Francais, since when he's become a real plodder who has his on and off days with the boot. No improvement on Skrela frankly. seems to me he needs to find some form sharpish or trot off somewhere else, I won't be paying a lot of money to watch him run a back line this year. But come on Toulousain, Freddy was great fun, but he didn't direct anything, nobody knew what he was going to do next. Worry was that neither did he. Great entertainment though and never ever boring. For me boring and Toulouse will always curdle, it should never be.
Posted 22:36 01st September 2012
papachinzo says...
The Old Guard is dying out, Toulouse need to start playing they're young players.
Posted 22:07 01st September 2012
Toulousain says...
Not sure the PR write-up quite sums it up (sorry Ed). ST had all the possession and territory plus significant dominance in the scrum. Ironically, ST played much better than they have in the past 2 games (which they won) but managed to lose. They lacked the "realism" of BO. Too many dropped passes trying to offload etc. Traille's try was totally against the run of play. Beauxis was 4 from 9 from the tee. And the young BO fly half was superb. 6/7 from the tee. And looked way better than poor Beauxis in directing play.
Bring back Michalak!!
Posted 18:45 01st September 2012