Stade Niçois won their second home game of the season against Suresnes by a large margin (37-19).
The Niçois were in second place before the match and wanted to maintain their lead. To stay at the top of the standings, the Niçois needed to manage the reception of the seventh-ranked team, Suresnes. For the seventh day of this National Championship, four changes were made to the starting XV. Notably, with two changes in the back row, Bolenaivalu and Brenguel replaced Smiler and Suaud. And the least that can be said is that the tactical choices paid off right from the start. In the third minute of play, Berenguel scored the first of the four Niçois tries.
After the conversion by the prolific scorer Romain Riguet, the red and blacks led by seven points. The trend continued, and the back row player repeated his success from the first match to secure a double. Following another conversion, Nice was already in the lead and extended their advantage by the 25th minute. Two additional penalties allowed Alexandre Compan’s men to lead comfortably (20-0) at halftime. A comfortable advantage to confidently approach the rest of the match.
Suresnes Responded
As soon as play resumed, the hosts made two changes. However, at the start of the second half, it was the visitors who opened their scoring. Winger Petero Tuwai finally found a gap to score a try. The conversion was successful, and the Suresnes players got back into this challenging match. But on a night when nothing seemed to go wrong for them, Romain Riguet’s teammates controlled the second half and scored two more tries. These were scored by hooker Strippoli and his replacement Santiago Overejo.
Victor Bernier’s late try would change nothing for the visitors. Stade Niçois secured a wide victory (37-19) and regained the top spot, pending the results of other teams. With four tries, they collected their second offensive bonus in two games, making a perfect record at home. The next meeting for the Niçois is on October 21 on the pitch of Chambéry, currently 10th in the standings.
