Play-off: An important victory

Monday, March 01, 2010
By winning in Castanet during their first game in the Jean-Prat trophy, Rugby Nice Côte d'Azur have positioned themselves at the top of their play-off pool from the outset. A narrow victory, 27-26, but an important victory that puts Nice in the lead in Pool 2 along with Chalon, also narrowly winning, 16-15, in Cahors.

Nice were leading 20-9 at the break and 27-9 early in the second half, with 3 tries, Nice thought they had done enough and probably thought a little too quickly that the bonus point could be obtained. This was unthinkable in the minds of Castanet who are a quality Toulouse team who have a list of successes this season, a victory over Marseille and a convincing win at La Seyne. Taking advantage of the inferior numbers of the Nice team following a white card for Derrstroff the Castanéens were able to resume business and score two tries in quick succession showing their strength and coming within one point of RNCA in the dying minutes.
Nice retained their lead and showed once again an ability to travel with this, the 5th away win of the season. Second play-off game, next Saturday in Cahors.
Direct flights to Toulouse with Air France: www.airfrance.com

NICE V CASTANET : 27-26 (20-9)

Ref: M.Cloute (Béarn)

For Nice: 3 tries, Lapierre (10th), McHugh (37th), Feldis (45th); 2 penalities (8th, 17th) and 3 conversions, Caminati. Yellow Card : G.Hill, 26th. White Card : Derrstroff , 57th.

For Castanet : 2 tries, collective (59th), 2 penalties (27th, 70th), 2 drop goals (22nd, 29th) et 2 transformations, Ricardo.

Nice team: Caminati, Fa’atau, Ngawini, Keil, Lapierre – (o) MacHugh, (m) Delmonte (cap.) – Mezencev, Sainte-Croix, J.Malavard (Orméa, 60th) – Derrstroff (Leduc, 67th), Boukanoucha – G.Hill (Traversa, 53rd), Feldis (MacKie, 56th), Guarese (Canizares, 43rd).