The current leader of the Top 14 had made a bet by lining up a revamped team of 13 players to tackle this return match of the knockout stages of the Champions Cup at Harlequins. A bet that turned out to be a winner for Montpellier. Despite the defeat (33-20) in London, this Saturday April 16, the Héraultais qualified for the quarter-finals thanks to the cumulative scores of the two matches (59-60), where they will face the winner of the 100% tricolor match between La Rochelle and Bordeaux-Begles. Harlequins fly-half Marcus Smith had the conversion of the win at the end of his foot.
The MHR imagined the English revenge after the defeat (40-26) in the first leg, he perhaps did not expect to race behind from the start to the end of the meeting. Saturday afternoon, it was a reactionary Montpellier, which clung to the slightest opportunity, to maintain its qualification at the end of a new match marked by an offensive festival (7 tries).
The try of the three-quarter center of the Quins, Huw Jones, after 35 seconds of play (7-0), in an apathetic defense, came to set the tone for a first period where the attacks rocketed. A real crossover has taken place, carried by the openers of the two teams, Marcus Smith on the English side, Louis Foursans on the French side. At the tries of Jones, Dombrandt (14th) and Marchant (29th), the Montpellier residents notably responded with those of Reilhac (14th) and Tisseron (33rd), each magnificently served by their opening half. On the other hand, they did not have time to respond to Lynagh’s just before the break (38th, 28-17).
Then, the meeting gradually closed, as if the two adversaries, suddenly overtaken by the stakes, had decided that the meeting would ultimately be played in defense. In the exercise, the Montpellier residents were heroic. Reduced to 14 after a succession of faults, cornered for long minutes in their five meters, the players of Philippe Saint-André did not let go. They even escaped a try from Marcus Smith – logically refused for obstruction – which could have sealed their fate (71st, 28-20).
By snatching to recover the ball lost by the English alignment and sending the oval out of bounds, synonymous with the final whistle, the MHR snatched the second European quarter-final in its history. He will face the winner of La Rochelle-UBB there.