French Top 8: And then there were four

Although (for most teams) there are now three games to play, we can now be pretty certain who the four teams who will play-off for the French championship in the spring.

Published by John Birch, January 21st, 2015

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French Top 8: And then there were four

Caen celebrate a massive win in Paris

Until last weekend five (or even six) teams were still realistically in the running for the play-offs – Montpellier and Lille who have been competing for the top position all season; and Perpignan, Blagnac St Orens and Bobigny who were still in the running for third and fourth (Caen also had a mathematical chance, if a rather remote one).

That all changed in a fairly dramatic way when Caen travelled to Paris to meet Bobigny on Saturday.  The Parisians, with a hugely exciting backline, had started the season with a bang – including beating champions Montpellier. But injuries and other non-availabilities of key players resulted in defeat last week to play-off rivals. This weekend they had to win against the Normans.

Unfortunately the list of Bobigny's unavailable players for the game was packed with star names - Clémence Gueucier, Sandra Métier, Pauline Biscarat, Caroline Ladagnous, Lucile Godiveau, Assa Koita, and Julie Annery. With much of the “B” team drafted in to cover, it was always going to be a struggle.

Even so, seven unanswered tries and a 0-51 defeat was far worse than Bobigny could have expected. Their problems began soon after the start, with Sandrine Boisseau crossing the line with almost the first attack. For a while desperate defence by “the wolves” prevented further scores, but eventually this strayed into illegality, two yellow cards were shown, and the score began to grow. Tries from Annaëlle Deshayes and Barbara Sineuxand taking the score to 22-0 by the break. Bobigny rallied briefly at the start of the second half, but a try by wing Emilie Guillochin finally broke their resistance before Sandrine Boisseau, Johanna Lelong and Stéphanie Provost rounded the game off.

As a result Caen do retain their mathematical chance of making the playoffs, but that does depend on Perpignan losing all four of their remaining games, which after six successive wins from the fast improving Catalans seems unlikely. This weekend it was a trip along the coast to Toulon to meet bottom team La Valette, who were dismissed with a six-try 34-0 win.

Next week will be a little tougher for Perpignan as they travel north to face Lille, who this weekend went top (on points difference) following a 21-5 win over Rennes, despite missing out on the bonus point.

So Lille, Montpellier and BSORF are now certain of a play-off place, and Perpignan will join them short of a truly epic set of circumstances. What we do not yet know is who will play who.

And next weekend… two of the three planned games will be shown live on French TV, and remarkably the games chosen could be previews of the semi-finals. If you can get access to the streams (or live in France), Lille will play Perpignan at 2.45pm on Saturday on Canal+ (this may require a subscription), and Montpellier will play BSORF at 1.50 on France4 (which is free-to-air).

CLUB

P

W

D

L

PD

PTS

1

LILLE METROPOL RC VILLENEUVOIS

11

9

0

2

181

42

1

MONTPELLIER R C

11

9

0

2

107

42

3

BLAGNAC SAINT ORENS RUGBY FEMININ

11

8

0

3

97

36

4

U S A P XV FEMININ ROUSSILLON

10

7

0

3

144

34

5

L OVALIE CAENNAISE

12

5

0

7

-7

25

6

A C BOBIGNY 93 RUGBY

10

4

0

6

-111

18

7

STADE RENNAIS RUGBY

12

2

0

10

-91

13

8

RUGBY CLUB VALETTOIS REVESTOIS

11

0

0

11

-320

1

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