Montpellier win third straight French title

Montpellier have won their third French championship in a row, beating Lille 17-3 in Bourg-en-Bresse today (Saturday)

Published by John Birch, May 2nd, 2015

4 minute read

Try Audio

Montpellier win third straight French title

Nerves tend to ensure that finals are rarely classics, and the final of the 2015 French Top 8 was no exception.

The 43rdfinal of the French women’s championship – and the first in its new guise as the “Top 8” -took the game back to its roots in Bourg-en-Bresse, where France’s first women’s club was formed in 1966, though this was the first time that the final had been played in the town.

Montpellier were in their eighth final in nine years, and they were attempting to win their third title in a row. For Lille, this was only their second final – having lost to Montpellier 15-12 in 2013 – but this year they had finished top of the league in the regular season, and entered the game with confidence of narrow favourites.

The game itself began as a tight, nervous affair with no score for the first quarter of the game, though ominously most of the play was in the Lille end of the field. Montpellier’s main tactic was – predictably – to maul using their powerful pack, but Lille were defending it well, and winning Montpellier’s lineouts, while Montpellier were giving away crucial penalties.

However there was a certain inevitability that Montpellier’s tactics would eventually reap a reward, and in the 25thminute they did when another maul drew in enough Lille defenders to leave room for quick-thinking Jennifer Troncy to spot a gap and put the champions into the lead. Though Lille pulled three points back with a penalty, wing Cyrielle Banet finished one of few back moves of the game to add a second try to give Montpellier a 10-3 lead at halftime.

The gap was not unbridgeable, however, but Montpellier remained in charge as the second half opened and on 56 minutes another maul this time carried all of the way to the line for a third try.

Desperation and frustration now took over as Lille repeatedly got themselves into promising positions, only for them to be lost with misdirected passes, or knock-ons or other unforced errors. With less than 10 minutes to go they even found themselves on a Montpellier line only defended by 13 players and seemed certain to score and reduce the deficit to just seven point, only for another the advantage to be lost with another needless penalty.

After that there was really no way back. Montpellier cleared this lines, and time quickly leaked away. Fittingly Montpellier, backed to 15 players, were on the attack and threatening the Lille line as time ran out and the championship was won.

In the end, although it was an impressive team performance that won the game, mention must be given Elodie Poublan who completed a memorable season with a standout performance that saw her everywhere on the field.

Post