Lyon on Friday ended a four-match French Top 14 losing streak with a 19-16 win over Bordeaux in what was the last match at their Matmut Stadium home.
The result allowed Lyon, who are this month to move to the Stade de Gerland, the former home of the city’s soccer club, to go 10 points clear of Grenoble, who occupy the first of the two relegation spots and 12 clear of rock-bottom Bayonne.
“It wasn’t all perfect, but bravo to the players,” Lyon boss Pierre Mignoni said. “Bordeaux gave us a lot of problems in the breakdown and prevented us from getting some dynamism into our game.”
Photo: AFP
“We have ended our four-game losing run. We have never given up, but the players needed to rediscover their confidence,” he added.
A drab first half saw the teams locked at 3-3 at the interval after Frederic Michalak, making just his fifth start of the season at scrumhalf, had canceled out Simon Hickey’s early penalty for Bordeaux.
Hickey and Michalak exchanged penalties again early in the second period before Lyon opened a 13-6 lead after 50 minutes with the first try of the game.
Bordeaux’s Australian winger Adam Ashley-Cooper was deceived by the bounce from Lyon flyhalf Mike Harris’s kick-ahead, which allowed winger Toby Arnold to score. Michalak kicked the extras.
Bordeaux’s Irish replacement flyhalf Ian Madigan cut the deficit to 13-9 with a penalty before Michalak and Jacques-Louis Potgieter, with a monster 40m kick, put Lyon back in charge at 19-9.
Replacement scrumhalf Yann Lesgourgues scored Bordeaux’s lone try in the last minute, with Madigan converting for 19-16.
It came too late to save playoff hopefuls Bordeaux, but it did give them a losing bonus point as they remained in sixth spot in the table.
ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP
AFP, LONDON
New Zealand utility back Jimmy Gopperth on Friday extended his lead at the top of the English Premiership point-scorers chart as Wasps edged his former club Newcastle 34-30 to go top of the table.
Their bonus-point win enabled them to go five points clear of defending champions Saracens, who travel to Leicester today.
Gopperth, who also enjoyed a successful spell at Irish province Leinster before moving across the Irish Sea to join Wasps, made an immediate impact after coming on at the beginning of the second half for an injured Danny Cipriani, who had made his mark by scoring a try in the opening period.
Gopperth, 33, went over for a try, which he converted to give the visitors the lead after trailing 22-21 at the break, with the hosts having burst out from the blocks and scored two early tries to give themselves a 12-0 advantage.
The Kiwi ended the match with a tally of 10 points to take his total for the season to 158.
However, Wasps managed to quell several Newcastle attacks and keep the scoreboard ticking over in their favor, which was just as well, as twice in the second half they were reduced to 14 men because they had a player sin-binned.
The hosts deservedly secured two losing bonus points through Mark Wilson’s late try.
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