Top 14 drilldown: Ryno's cannonball, racism rears ugly head, Ronan O'Gara rues inefficiency

There were bigger issues than Ryno Pieterse's 'cannonball' hit in the Top 14 this week
Top 14 drilldown: Ryno's cannonball, racism rears ugly head, Ronan O'Gara rues inefficiency

Lyon's French prop Demba Bamba (L) fights for the ball with Perpignan's French back Julien Farnoux (R) during the French Top 14 rugby union match between Lyon (LOU) and Perpignan (USAP) on September 18, 2021, at the Matmut Stadium de Gerland in Lyon. Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP via Getty Images 

Mon, 20 Sep, 2021 - 10:11
James Harrington

Top 14 Talking Points

Ryno Pieterse’s ‘tackle’ was the major talking point of the Top 14 weekend, after the Castres’ lock's out-of-control cannonball hit on Bordeaux scrum-half Maxime Lucu went viral.

It was a dangerously poor hit, and he’s going to get a ban. But bigger issues that deserved greater attention got buried in the social media pile-on.

There’s a reason twice-weekly rugby paper Midi Olympique relegated Pieterse’s moment of thuggery to the inside pages, to focus instead on racism in rugby — which is again raising its unacceptable face in French rugby.

ProD2 player Ludovic Radosavljevic was banned for 26 matches for a vile slur against Nevers’ Christian Ambadiang earlier this season, and it emerged yesterday that Lyon prop Demba Bamba has been targeted by racists on social media.

His try, his overall performance, on Saturday in the win over Perpignan was a huge and defiant doigt d’honneur in their direction.

HOW THEY STAND

The league table looks like this after three matches, following a weekend in which 33 tries were scored, and seven yellows and one red card issued. Just 23 more games to the play-offs.

Toulouse and Castres are the only undefeated sides after three rounds, while Stade Francais and La Rochelle are, surprisingly, the two clubs still looking for their first victories.

Toulon Trophee hunt

Toulon won the inaugural Trophee Christophe Dominici match at Stade Mayol against Stade Francais 38-5, a scoreline that just about indicates how easy — for a specific Top 14 value of ‘easy’ — their victory was.

The trophy will not actually be awarded until after the return fixture in January, as it goes to the side that scores the most points over the two meetings. But Toulon are very much in the box seat.

Thomas Salles’ try early in the second half was a thing of beauty and joy forever, and will justifiably appear in the tries of the week highlights reel on social media — and Aymeric Luc’s touchdown three minutes later was an object lesson in how to make the most out of a scrum in the middle of the field — but Stade fairly gifted their hosts the match.

The Paris side's attack has gone from full fire at the end of last season — when they averaged 34 points a game in a six-game winning streak to reach the play-offs — to damp squib, giving up possession in promising positions too easily, criminally so sometimes after breaking through the Toulon defence.

Stade scrum-half Arthur Coville summed it up after the match: “We had [our fair share of] the ball, but we gave up more than a dozen faults. You can’t play that way - it’s catastrophic.” 

Three games. Three defeats. Bottom of the table with zero points, and 111 match points conceded. Seems close to a definition of catastrophic, with early-season caveats.

Jono v Rog

A winless run dating back to 1956 still stands after La Rochelle lost 23-22 at Clermont in an early season meeting of former coaching colleagues-turned-rivals Ronan O’Gara and Jono Gibbes.

And it was Gibbes, now in charge at Clermont, who claimed the early bragging rights, as his side won in dismal conditions to bag his first win.

Conditions at a rain and wind-lashed Stade Marcel Michelin meant that any hopes of all-out KBA attacking rugby were down the storm drain — but, remarkably, there were just eight knock-ons in the entire game.

“It's quite easy to understand this defeat, when you lack precision,” O’Gara told reporters afterwards. “You don't have to look too far. We relaxed too easily at key moments. There you go, game lost.

“But I'm not worried, I've seen some positive things. There is still a lot of work to be done. I am frustrated, disappointed for the players. We were not efficient."

The fact is, La Rochelle could have had two wins under their belt already. It took a red card and a moment of brilliance from Ntamack for Toulouse to beat them on opening day — and they had their chances on Saturday, notably in the second half,  but were let down by a lack of discipline and patience at crucial times.

The trick now, O’Gara knows, is to take that next step to avoid a campaign like Montpellier’s last season. Three early defeats aren’t entirely disastrous — especially against Toulouse, and at Racing and Clermont — but it can’t be denied he has some catching up to do. Biarritz at home next week.

Gibbes, meanwhile, is probably more grateful for that first win of the season than most realise. His side’s next three matches are against Toulouse, Racing and Stade Francais.

But at least he’s got Peceli Yato, Fritz Lee and Kotaro Matsushima back… 

Bamba responds 'in most beautiful way'

Demba Bamba’s try after six minutes was more than just the opening score of Lyon’s seven-try 47-3 demolition of Perpignan at Stade Gerland on Saturday afternoon.

The France prop been the target of racist keyboard warriors on Lyon’s social media accounts after he had dropped the ball with the tryline at his mercy in the low-scoring defeat at Pau a week earlier.

Head coach Pierre Mignoni voiced his unequivocal support for the player — as the club had done immediately when the vile comments were posted: “We fall into a world of fools who allow themselves to criticise and insult ... It was a scandal … Demba was hurt and he responded in the most beautiful way.”

Despite the scoreline, it’s not all sweetness and light at Lyon. International centre Pierre-Louis Barassi needs tests on what might be a sprained ankle picked up as he dived over to score Lyon’s third try.

And Mignoni reckons there’s room for improvement — especially in terms of his side’s discipline — as he set his players a target of giving up fewer than 10 penalties per game.

“[Our] indiscipline allowed Perpignan to come to us … [they] gave us a hard time. The scoreline is heavy but they fought well. We still made a lot of mistakes. There were fewer stupid mistakes, but I will review the game, talk to the referee, bring in a referee this week.

Fly-half Leo Berdeu added: “We have to raise the bar ... otherwise next week, at Racing, we risk conceding 30.” 

Ryno sees red

Ryno Pieterse’s 65th-minute red card in the game between Castres and Bordeaux was — unsurprisingly — the sole talking point of a match that had, to that point, been enjoyably diverting if mostly unmemorable.

By the time referee Romain Poite was forced to show that card, four tries had been scored, and Castres — having been 10-3 up midway through the first half — were 23-20 behind.

Maxime Lucu, who was on the receiving end of Pieterse’s uncontrolled cannonball, later tweeted that he was fine — “Thank you all for your kind messages. Everything’s fine! Still standing,” he said.

Castres’ backs coach David Darricarrerre made no excuses for the player, sent off 13 minutes after he had come on as a replacement. “The act totally justified the red card,” he said after the game. “We do not excuse him [Pieterse], far from it. But he is also a young player — he will learn from his mistakes. [He will] certainly be suspended and rightly so. And he will continue to work to stop committing this kind of act."

This fixture — and its return leg at Chaban Delmas — has turned into something of a regular Top 14 calendar battleground, in which the niggle is often turned up to 11, following the less-than-happy departure of Bordeaux coach Christophe Urios from Castres in 2019.

Herron sinks Racing

Former Harlequins fly-half Brett Herron kicked 23 points as Biarritz beat illustrious opponents Racing 92 23-19 at Parc des Sports Aguilera, despite losing the try-scoring count three-one.

It was a game that proved the fundamental rule of rugby — a side that loses the collisions loses the game. It also proved a rule new to the Top 14: don’t give up penalties in Herron’s range.

Captain Gael Fickou admitted his side were second best at the most basic aspect of the game, and had been unprepared for the aggressiveness of their hosts.

“It's not possible to miss so much in terms of state of mind,” he said — his phrasing almost-but-not-quite hiding a warning to next week’s opponents, Lyon. “Losing a game can happen in difficult conditions, taking in the facts of the game.

“But to be wrong on the state of mind, it should not happen, especially when you’re a Racing player.” 

Wenceslas Lauret added: "The whole Biarritz team had more heart than us. If you don't put enough into this kind of match, against a promoted side, in the rain, you don't win. We leave here with a great lesson in humility."

It’s not as if Racing had no warning — the Basque Country side had beaten an under-prepared Bordeaux just two weeks ago. There are no excuses.

Montpellier need a joker

Montpellier are already in the market for a scrum-half on a short-term medical joker contract, after losing two nines — Benoit Paillaugue and Gela Aprasidze — to injury in the opening three weeks of the season, while their third senior nine, Cobus Reinach, is with South Africa.

Paillaugue suffered a cruciate ligament injury at Toulon on the opening day, and Aprasidze is expected to be out for about a month with a shoulder injury picked up early in Saturday’s 17-15 loss at home to reigning champions Toulouse.

It was something of a smash-grab-hang-on-like-hell win for the visitors. Romain Ntamack scored the first of their two tries with just over a minute on the clock, and released Lucas Tauzin for their second early in the second half.

But, Montpellier — guided by the prodigiously talented Paolo Garbisi on his debut for the club following his surprise summer transfer — were always threatening, even after the loss of Aprasidze just a quarter of an hour in. Replacement nine Martin Doan, in his second Top 14 outing, scored a try to get the hosts — in front of a sell-out crowd at the GGL — back into the game after 66 minutes.

By now, Garbisi was pulling the strings. His crossfield kick for Vincent Rattez’s try four minutes from time was an exercise in booted perfection. It’s just unfortunate that he missed the follow-up conversion that would have levelled the scores.

Brave Brive

Jeremy Davidson’s Brive have long been a difficult side to beat at home. With defence like this it’s easy to see why.

Now, it also seems they’re becoming a difficult side to stop at home. For the second time this season, they racked up a try-scoring bonus in the first half, including two in the dying three minutes, to beat Pau 30-13.

The Brivistes 10 points from two games to sit third in the table, level on points with Lyon and Castres, having led the pack after the opening weekend.

Davidson is already looking to next weekend’s challenge at Bordeaux, where he expects better in defence.

“The last few times Pau came, we struggled until the end. We had to take the game by the throat, impose our rhythm. The 13 points that we gave up were avoidable.

“Now we have to move on. We really want to play and have fun. Maybe that shows we have to be counted on this season."

Brive are at Bordeaux on Saturday. It’s honestly hard to see them picking up anything there.

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