For the 5th day of Pro D2, Stade Niçois hosted Colomiers. A difficult match to tackle at the start of the season.
The evening was not ideal at the Marcel Volot stadium. Although Stade Niçois had a strong first half, Alexandre Compan’s players struggled in the second half.
From the first minutes, Colomiers attacked but were penalized several times. Mathis Viard missed his first penalty attempt before redeeming himself three minutes later by opening the score. The Niçois approached the game positively and were even close to scoring a try. But fullback Ugo Pacome recovered the ball, caught the defense off guard, and served Mathis Galthié. Colomiers took the lead (3-7), somewhat against the run of play.
The game turned two minutes later when the second-row Janse Roux was given a yellow card. Nice reacted and took advantage of this numerical superiority to score a try through Facundo Gigena. The left prop touched down after a well-driven maul (10-7). Colomiers drew level thanks to a penalty converted by Ugo Pacome. Nice ended the first half well by scoring two more penalties, first by Mathis Viard, then by Paul Auradou (16-10), despite being a man down due to Luca Cutayar.
Stade Niçois could not find the solution
In the second half, the Haut-Garonnais picked up the pace. The visitors scored two quick tries, by Rodrigo Marta and then Ray Nu’U. Colomiers took a six-point lead (16-22), although the first conversion was missed. Ugo Pacome then recovered by scoring a penalty from over 40 meters (16-25). The rest of the match remained very balanced with a penalty on each side.
Final score (19-28) in favor of Colomiers, who remain at the top of the Pro D2 standings. For their part, Stade Niçois found themselves last with only five points.
A necessary reaction in two weeks, still at home, this time against Stade Montois. See you on Friday, October 11 at 7:30 pm.
