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Stade Francais ease past Toulon

TOP 14 WRAP: Gael Fickou starred as Stade Francais crushed struggling Toulon 37-10 on Sunday to collect a bonus-point victory and jump to second in the French Top 14.

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Twice in the first 20 minutes, France centre Fickou accelerated through the Toulon line to touch down.

The first try followed a neat exchange of passes with Jonathan Danty, while the second came after a dummy pass that fooled the Toulon defence.

Danty then wasted a two-on-one, before Toulon winger Josua Tuisova pounced on a ball that had not quite rolled dead to bring the visitors to within seven points at half-time.

Toulon struggled to find a way through a Stade defence that made 117 tackles to 82 by the visitors.

In defence, we were heroic,” said Stade forwards coach Pieter de Villiers. “Physically, we set the bar very high this week.”

The home team were frequently menacing in attack, but Danty and the dynamic Sekou Macalou wasted more scoring chances with bad choices early in the second half, before hooker Laurent Panis restored Stade’s 14-point cushion.

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Both teams finished with 14 men after Macalou and Toulon winger Julian Savea received yellow cards following a melee which was joined by a fan who strolled onto the pitch in dark glasses and holding a small, pink Stade flag.

Substitute forward Hugh Pyle ploughed over the line to score the fourth try and earn a bonus point with three minutes to play.

The defeat leaves big-spending Toulon with only one win from four matches and languishing in 12th place.

“We didn’t even compete,” said Toulon coach Patrice Collazo. “Stade Francais ran all over us and that bothers me.

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“It is not enough to wear a Toulon jersey to be a Toulon player.”

Earlier, La Rochelle’s former All Black Victor Vito inspired his side to a 37-10 victory over Perpignan on Sunday, the newly-promoted Top 14 side’s fourth straight defeat.

Home flyhalf Ihaia West and Jonathan Bousquet traded early penalties in an error-strewn match that was tight until the hour mark.

A key moment, however, saw skipper Vito, who won 33 All Blacks caps and was a member of the double Rugby World Cup-winning squads, opt to kick for touch with a penalty instead of going for the posts, and the New Zealander’s choice paid off after a knock-on at the resulting line-out.

As Perpignan’s scrum wheeled, Vito deftly snapped the ball between his legs — American football-style — to Arthur Retiere, who took and passed in one step, in the process drawing Bousquet and allowing Vincent Rattez to dart in for a try converted by West.

Although game Perpignan responded early in the second half through a Tom Ecochard try with the La Rochelle defence stretched, it was only a matter of time before the floodgates opened.

First, Fijian Kini Murimurivalu muscled over from short range for La Rochelle, and then Geoffrey Doumayrou in front of 16,000 fans at a sun-kissed Stade Marcel-Deflandre.

Perpignan conceded a penalty try before Kiwi hooker Hikairo Forbes was bundled over for the home side’s fifth try at the whistle.

It meant a fourth defeat for Perpignan after previous losses to Stade Francais, Agen and Lyon, while it was a second victory for La Rochelle.

Saturday saw replacements Yohan Beheregaray and Greig Laidlaw help Clermont grab a 27-23 victory at Pau to make it four straight Top 14 wins.

Reigning champions Castres jumped to second in the table with a 29-13 win over newly-promoted Grenoble, who like Perpignan have lost four games on the trot.

Castres are level on points with Toulouse, who dispatched Racing 92 30-17, and just ahead of Lyon, who took revenge for a heavy defeat in last season’s playoffs as they crushed beaten finalists Montpellier 55-13 to make it back-to-back wins.

French Top 14 results:

Sunday:

La Rochelle 37 Perpignan 10
Stade Francais 37 Toulon 10

Saturday

Lyon 55 Montpellier 13
Agen 22 Bordeaux-Begles 17
Castres 29 Grenoble 13
Pau 23 Clermont 27
Toulouse 30 Racing92 17

Agence France-Presse

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