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It's Pia's again |
The first domestic silverware was up for grabs as Pia and Carcassonne faced off at the Stade Albert Domec for the Coupe de France. In torrential rain, it would be the reigning champions that took the trophy back home.
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The weather - and I can't emphasise how wet it was - may have affected the crowd a little, but it was still fairly full inside the stadium as Freddie Banquet kicked us off. Handling was extremely difficult and both sides were making a lot of errors early on as defences dominated as a safety first approach typified the early exchanges. The first time one side tried something expansive, it paid dividends. After a Carcassonne knock on, Maxime Grésèque found Tom O'Reilly who switched it inside for Josh Tatupu to barge over by the sticks. Grésèque tagged on the extras for a 6-0 lead in the 8th minute.
Carcassonne coughed it again three minutes later in centre field. Dean Bosnich brushed off a couple of tacklers and fed Guillaume Knecht who had got up in support and romped past the scrambling defence to go over under the posts, making Grésèque's job of converting simple for a 12-0 lead. Bosnich went from provider to scorer next. Again off the back of a Carcassonne knock-on, compounded by a penalty, a quick play-the-ball saw Franck Traversa find the big Aussie prop on the charge and he carried four men over the line to score. Again, Grésèque notched the simple conversion and Carcassonne were in big trouble at 18-0 after 18 minutes.
A great break from Craig West, jinking his way through the Canaries' defence, saw Pia get upfield and in a position for their next score. Grésèque was on the end of a superb offload from Traversa and he added the extras for 24-0. Carcassonne just couldn't get hold of the ball and on the occasions they did, they'd drop it. Pia were in no mood to pass up the opportunities presented to them. Finally, they got an oppostunity in Pia territory. Penalised for not playing the ball correctly, Pia were on the back foot for once and Christophe Moly put Cyril Armani through a gap created by Teddy Sadaoui's dummy run. Banquet's kick sailed wide, but Carcassonne were at least on the board at 24-4 with 8 minutes to go to the break and visibly lifted. Patrice Benausse was the beneficiary of this. A superb kick and chase got Carcassonne upfield and Banquet's inch perfect cross-field bomb found Benausse unmarked in the left wing and he scoredin the corner. Banquet hit a beauty from the sideline, drifting in like a glorious tee shot for 24-10. Banquet belted a massive 40/20 late in the half - more of a 30/5 in effect - but Carcassonne couldn't capitalise and it remained 24-10 as the players went off for a well earned break, though not before O'Reilly and Sadaoui had exchanged blows.
The rain didn't let up during the break and two very soggy sides recommenced proceedings. Despite the wet conditions, both sides were completing around the 70% mark, which is quite remarkable. It was a lot harder going in the second period with defence dominating and tempers wearing thin. Banquet's astute kicking game continued to cause the Donkeys problems while Craig West was outstanding at full-back for Pia in repelling raids and his handling in the wet was outstanding. A Banquet bomb isolated Nicolas Athiel wide on the right and as he coughed it up under pressure, Bastien Almarcha was quickest to react. He hacked forward and dived over out wide. Banquet couldn't convert and as the cloick ticked onto the hour, it was 24-14. Grésèque had the opportunity to put Pia out to a 12-point lead with a penalty from 45 metres out, but it slid wide and Almarcha ensured it didn't go dead. Josh Tatupu had a big charge as O'Reilly set him free and Athiel just failed to retrieve his chip over as Pia turned the heat up.
Pia sealed it with a try nine minutes from time and it was the best of the night. O'Reilly and Grésèque spread it quickly and Tatupu sent Nicolas Piquemal down the left wing. He shrugged off the attentions of Nicolas Chaboud and offloaded to the supporting Tatupu who crashed over under the attentions of Sadaoui to round off a flowing, 50-metre move. Grésèque banged over a great conversion from the touchline to make it 30-14 with moments remaining. And so it remained until the hooter and the celebrations began for the Pia players. That's two cup wins in a row for the Catalan side and they're now half-way to doing an historic 'double double'.
A very good match and a real showcase for the French domestic game, especially so given the incessant rain. There were many standout performances. Big Freddie Banquet did not deserve to be on the losing side. He was magnificent for the Canaries. Craig West and Franck Traversa - he's been deputising at hooker following a season-ending injury to Matthias Garrabé - were superb for Pia, but Dean Bosnich was the sang-et-or.net man of the match. In an 80-minute stint he set up one and scored one, defended well and showed some rare ball-handling skills. His running battle with former colleague Brett O'Farrell was a real highlight.
Carcassonne don't have long to mull over the defeat as they travel to St Gaudens in the Championship play-offs on Saturday.
MATCH FACTS
CARCASSONNE 14-30 PIA
| | CARCASSONNE | T | G | DG | | PIA | T | G | DG |
| 1 | Almarcha | 1 | | | 1 | West | | | |
| 2 | Benausse | 1 | | | 2 | Piquemal | | | |
| 3 | Chaboud | | | | 3 | Tatupu | 1 | | |
| 4 | Clément | | | | 4 | Smith | | | |
| 5 | Guiraud | | | | 5 | Muniosa | | | |
| 6 | Banquet | | 1 | | 6 | Grésèque | 1 | 4 | |
| 7 | Moly | | | | 7 | O'Reilly | | | |
| 8 | O'Farrell | | | | 8 | Bosnich | 1 | | |
| 9 | Mafhoudi | | | | 9 | Traversa | | | |
| 10 | Pau | | | | 10 | Kennedy | | | |
| 11 | Faure | | | | 11 | Knecht | 1 | | |
| 12 | Azema | | | | 12 | Turton | | | |
| 13 | Sadaoui | | | | 13 | Leger | | | |
| 14 | Laffon | | | | 14 | Ambert | | | |
| 15 | Armani | 1 | | | 15 | Athiel | | | |
| 16 | Bemba | | | | 16 | Martins | | | |
| 17 | Expert | | | | 17 | Pradal | | | |
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