In the first leg of the Yves-du-Manoir Trophy quarter-final, Stade Niçois took a step towards qualification with a 20 to 10 victory over Tarbes at the Stade des Arboras. The Niçois will therefore go to Tarbes next Saturday with a 10-point lead. A big challenge.
A half-time to observe and a half-time to win. Stade Niçois does not change its habits against the big teams. To say that the tenants of the Arboras stadium took the whole first half to get into the game would be false. It is more “20 minutes to observe, 20 minutes to warm up, and 40 minutes to win.”
A difficult first half…
If Nice’s victory is undeniable, it was hard and slow to take shape. The entire first half is to the advantage of the visiting Tarbes team who monopolized the ball and invested in the Niçois camp. The Haut-Pyrénées pack troubled its counterpart, which had rarely been so dominated. 6 fouls in 21 minutes for the Niçois. Too many. Worse, the red and black scrum was repeatedly overwhelmed and penalized with a yellow card for the left prop Capps, and a penalty try. At halftime, the players of Stado Tarbes-Pyrénées Rugby were logically ahead 10 to 3.
… and a half with regrets
We don’t know what David Bolgashvili said to his players, but it had an effect. And quickly. In the space of 7 minutes, Stade Niçois scored two tries (Louis Martin and Matthieu Bonnet-Gonnet) and took the lead 15-10. The local defensive line stifled the visitors who could no longer advance. And on a ball recovered after a very good defense, it was the fullback Sylvain Romain who scored the third try 10 minutes before the end (20-10). This was followed by a succession of 3 dropped balls on 3 big try opportunities. Nice missed the chance to widen the gap further and secure the offensive bonus point.
10-point lead for the return match
The Niçois will therefore travel next Saturday to the Stade Maurice Trélut with a (only) 10-point lead. To qualify for the semi-final, they will have to either win (or draw), or lose by less than 10 points without giving the offensive bonus point to the Tarbais. Not easy when you know the quality of this team when they play on their home ground.
