The Top 14 France 2013/14 season kicked off on Friday and we had a few surprises and a few teams that will need to settle quickly. Certainly the big match and money boys did not have it all their way and a couple had lucky escapes.
Friday and Montpellier took proceedings to Toulon and ran out to a comfortable lead 13-3 at the break. As expected this was a game of the boot Wilkinson versus Pelissie and Trinh Duc. Things ended pretty much even with the final score of 22-22 could prove vital for Toulon later in the season.
The rest of the weekends games were palyed out over Saturday and Biarritz ASM Clermont was an exciting run out which the away side just managed to sneak 18-22. Biarritz could have stolen it on the last play, but not to be. Bayonne showed no mercy to new boys Oyonnax, though it was good to see the new boys on the score sheet 39-11 final score here. So to a nice little upset as Bordeaux put the once mighty Toulouse to the sword winning 31-25. Toulouse did have their chances but Pierre Bernard kept the Begles score board ticking.
Grenoble had a tough ask against the money men of Paris, but hung on in there to record a 19-16 win coming from 6-9 at the break. Racing Métro took their game to the coast and managed to record a win but in another tight affair 19-14. They seemed in control at 10-5 half-time but Brive competed to the final whistle. Last up and Castres could not start with a win away to Perpignan going down 26-23. This was tied at 13-13 at the break and was the Hook and Kockott boot show.
Interesting view with some very messy scrums expect things to tighten up over the coming weeks.
Here are all the Results in round one:
Results Round One
Fri 16 Aug 19:45 Montpellier 22-22 Toulon Stade Yves Du Manoir BTSport
Sat 17 Aug 14:00 Biarritz 18-22 ASM Clermont Parc des Sports d’Aguilera ESPN
Sat 17 Aug 14:00 Bayonne 39-11 Oyonnax Stade Jean Dauger
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Bordeaux 31-25 Toulouse Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Grenoble 19-16 Paris Stade Lesdiguières
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Racing Métro 19-14 Brive Stade Marcel Deflandre
Sat 17 Aug 19:35 Perpignan 26-23 Castres Stade Aimé Giral
Three wrong for week one, so lets hope we can get on track this week. Here are our picks in Bold:
Fixtures Round Two
All Times UK
Fri 23 Aug 19:50 Toulon v Racing Métro Stade Mayol ESPNHD UK
Sat 24 Aug 14:00 Oyonnax v Clermont Stade Charles Mathon BTSport2HD
Sat 24 Aug 17:30 Biarritz v Montpellier Parc des Sports d’Aguilera
Sat 24 Aug 17:30 Castres v Grenoble Stade Pierre Antoine
Sat 24 Aug 17:30 Perpignan v Paris Stade Aimé Giral
Sat 24 Aug 17:30 Toulouse v Bayonne Stade Ernest Wallon
Sat 24 Aug 19:35 Brive v Bordeaux Stade Amédée Domenech
Highlights are on BTSport and ESPN UK through the week 14:00