Top 14: Champions Perpignan move level with Castres after 30-13 victory at Bayonne

06 February 2010

Defending champions Perpignan won 30-13 at Bayonne on Friday night, with Christophe Manas scoring a last-minute try that earned them a crucial attacking bonus.

The result lifted the Catalans level on points with current leaders Castres, but hosts Bayonne remain stuck in the relegation zone after their first defeat in four games under new head coach Christian Gajan. The Basques remain two points behind 12^th-placed Bourgoin, with both sides due to meet before the end of the season in what is looking increasingly likely to be a relegation decider.

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The home side battled throughout and enjoyed plenty of ball, but their game was consistently undone by unforced errors as they struggled to convert their possession into points.

It was a problem that Perpignan put into stark perspective as they displayed a cutting edge worthy of champions in running in four tries on the night.

Fly-half Nicolas Laharrague put them 3-0 up with a long-range penalty in the seventh-minute, but the Catalan No 10 was then yellow-carded three minutes later for a high tackle on Lacroix, with Bayonne’s Cédric Garcia kicking the resultant penalty to level the scores.

The Bayonne scrum-half missed with a subsequent effort from the corner on 14 minutes but was on target again three minutes later when Perpignan were penalised in the lineout as the Basques moved 6-3 ahead. In-between they had lost the services of their full-back and skipper Pepito Elhorga – who limped off with a hamstring injury to be replaced by former Toulon fly-half Sebastien Fauqué.

Jérôme Porical then squandered an opportunity to level the scores with a 50m effort, before winger Adrien Plante touched down for the opening try of the evening after an inch-perfect cross kick from Laharrague.

Plante then doubled up two minutes before the break after a rapier Perpignan counter-attack, and with Laharrague adding the conversion this time the Catalans went into the interval with 15-6 advantage.

Fauqué failed with a 40m-drop goal attempt soon after the restart and the visitors then underlined their supremacy with a third try (on 43 minutes) when Jerome Porical rounded off another sweeping move that went the length of the pitch. Laharrague’s second successful conversion made it 22-6, and he added a further penalty on 52 minutes to put the Catalans even further ahead.

But the visitors’ attacking bonus was then wiped out when Bayonne hooker Arnaud Heguy was driven over just past the hour mark, and with Garcia converting Bayonne’s hopes of a defensive bonus were also lifted as they fought back to 13-25.

By this time Laharrague had been forced off with an injury, to be replaced by Manas, and Perpignan then redoubled their efforts in search of another score to claim to the five-point win.

Tempers flared as the match progressed to its climax, with a flurry of yellow cards the inevitable result. Perpignan flanker Jean-Pierre Perez was first into the sin-bin (for a professional foul in the 66^th minute) before prop Benoit Bourrust and Bayonne’s Rodney Blake both followed suit three minutes later after squaring up to each other.

Both sides pushed for a further try in the dying minutes but it was Perpignan who ended on a high after Manas’ last-minute effort following Plante’s intercept of a wayward Manny Edmonds pass.

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