Lyon, winner in Brive, and Toulon, who dominated Bayonne, were the good students of the first day of the Top 14 while the French Stadium, against Clermont, and Racing 92, in front of Castres, trembled before impose.
The LOU bites entry
For the premiere of his new coach Xavier Garbajosa, Lyon, winner of the European Challenge last year, did not make it in the lace on the field of Brive (27-31).
Despite a quick first try by Esteban Abadie, the Corréziens made a pale copy, sinning in defense and who can consider themselves very lucky to have collected a defensive bonus point thanks to a penalty try granted after the siren by the referee of the meeting, Benoît Rousselet. It is clearly another pair of sleeves which awaits the teammates of Léo Berdeu next weekend against La Rochelle.
Toulon surprised but dominating
The Var club, for its first match of the season at the Mayol stadium, struggled against valiant Bayonnais (40-25), the only ones promoted this year, who only cracked before the power of their opponents after an hour of play. .
Rowing players, authors of three tries, made Charles Ollivon’s teammates doubt. Thanks to the boot of Baptiste Serin, the RCT kept a short distance, until they managed to unlock the score in their favor, scoring three tries in less than ten minutes.
You elected Charles Ollivon after a great performance from our captain and his try which liberated the stadium #RCTAB pic.twitter.com/Lwwf0CjCE3
– RCT – RC Toulon (@RCTofficiel) September 3, 2022
A warning therefore for the men of the duo Franck Azéma / Pierre Mignoni, before a very perilous trip to Toulouse next Sunday.
Racing 92 in the snatch
For his first match of his season at the Arena, the men of Laurent Travers, winners of Castres (25-19) thanks to a try three minutes from the end of Olivier Klemenszak, almost left their nerves there.
Dominated by pragmatic Castres, authors of the first two tries of the meeting, Racing, deprived of many players injured or called up for selection, found salvation in its young guard, personalized by the twirling Enzo Benmegal, at the origin of the test for victory.
Stade Français overthrows Clermont
Laborious, Morgan Parra’s teammates, now “pink” after thirteen seasons with the Jaunards, managed to overthrow Clermont (24-18) thanks in particular to the foot of their opening half Joris Segonds, author of fourteen points of his own. only.
However, this may be a bit fair for Gonzalo Quesada’s men next weekend, at the Pierre-Fabre stadium in Castres, where the CO has been undefeated since December 2020.
Regretting the side “apathetic” of his team, the captain of Clermont Arthur Iturria regretted for his part that the ASM did not “not been killer enough”an error that will quickly have to be corrected on the second day against Pau, victorious (16-14) from Perpignan.