Huge disappointment this Sunday, May 8 for RC Orléans in Round of 16 first leg of the Federal 2 rugby championship. The fifteen from Orleans was beaten in Switzerland by the Servette Rugby Club of Geneva on the very heavy score from 36 to 6. The Swiss team wins with a 30-point difference but plus the offensive bonus point thanks to three tries scored during the match. It will take a feat next Sunday from the RCO to reverse the situation in the return match in Orleans.
Entry yellow card
On the beautiful lawn of the Les Cherpines sports center in Plan-Les-Ouates, RC Orléans was dominated almost the entire game by a strong team from Servette in Geneva. After responding with a penalty from Martin Junquet (scrum half) at the opener also on a penalty from Servette’s opening half, Lucas Chouvet (3-3), the RCO will be very quickly handicapped by a gauge card inflicted on his scrum half for repeat fault of the Orleans collective. Lucas Chouvet transformed the penalty in front of the posts followed a few minutes later by the first try for the garnets signed by the center three quarter, Jérémy Scalese (13-3). Reduced to fourteen, the RCO circled back, failing to be dangerous. A new penalty from Chouvet for Geneva then from Junquet for Orléans took the score to 16 to 6 at halftime.
Chouvet (Servette) as a maestro
At the start of the second half, RC Orléans came back with better intentions, notably with an action 5 meters from the Servette in-goal. Short-lived illusion with Scalese’s double for the Swiss fifteen at the end of a magnificent offshore movement, a try transformed by Chouvet (23-6). The Geneva fly-half continued his recital with two new penalties (29-6) then after a masterful pass in the interval to his rear allowed the young three-quarter, Ethan Redordtier, to go and score a third try under the Orleans posts, synonymous with an offensive bonus for the garnets. With the entries of Pécile, Galuola, Grelet and Ibaka, the RCO finally showed itself impactful in the last ten minutes but without being able to score and deprived Servette of the offensive bonus point.
Garcin will need a feat
At the end of the meeting, Jimmy Belouet, the head coach of the RCO had difficulty in hiding his distress tinged with cold anger at the microphone of France Bleu Orléans: “We are beaten down, we almost have a feeling of shame, we did not exist, we must recognize the superiority of our adversary, but our performance bothers me, we took on water from all sides”. The captain and three quarter Romain Lambert did not hide his frustration either. : “We really came here to do a good thing but we suddenly, suddenly”. For the RCO, it will now be very complicated to qualify at the end of this 16th final. This will require winning next Sunday at home with the offensive bonus point but also with more than 30 points difference. “I can’t tell you it’s not playable, it’s over, it’s lost” says Jimmy Belouet before adding “the objective is elsewhere for us, it is to regain pride”.
The return match for RC Orléans against Servette Rugby Club de Genève will take place Sunday May 15 at the Stade Marcel Garcin. Live on France Bleu Orléans.