Stade go top with Toulon thrashing
Stade Francais stunned champions Toulon 30-6 in Paris on Sunday to replace their opponents at the French Top 14 summit.
Tries from captain Sergio Parisse, substitute Jeremy Sinzelle and Georgian prop Zurab Zhavania put the French and European champions – for whom Australia international back James O'Connor didn't come off the bench in what would have been his final appearance before returning home – to the sword at the Jean Bouin stadium.
"I'm proud and satisfied, it's hugely pleasurable to find myself with a group that buys into our project," said Stade's Argentine coach Gonzalo Quesada.
"I'm very happy because we've made massive progress in defence. We won thanks to the attitude we showed in going after the bonus point at the end."
It is six years since Stade have reached the Top 14 play-offs but they will start the New Year in pole position to finally end that sorry record, although they were top three games further into the season a year ago and still missed out.
Stade made a blistering start as the hosts won a scrum against the head in the Toulon 22 and Parisse cantered through a gaping hole to score by the posts after four minutes.
The Parisians had their tails up and were in total control of the early proceedings as flyhalf Jules Plisson landed a pair of penalties in quick succession.
The European champions were infringing at the breakdown in an effort to stem the tide of white shirts coming at them and referee Pascal Gauzere's patience finally wore thin as he sent Argentina prop Matias Cortese to the sin bin for a high tackle.
Two minutes later another Toulon forward, flank Virgile Bruni was also shown a yellow card and with Plisson kicking his third penalty for a 16-0 lead, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the champions.
But playing with a two-man numerical disadvantage focused Toulon's minds and Argentina flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez knocked over a drop-goal before Wales fullback Leigh Halfpenny scored a penalty.
Toulon had several chances to close the gap further in the second half but Sanchez hit the bar with a drop-goal attempt and put another wide while Halfpenny was well off target with a long-range penalty attempt.
And they paid for it late on as Stade bravely attacked from deep and Geoffrey Doumayrou put Sinzelle over in the corner before Zhvania finished off a sweeping move direct from Toulon's restart.
"It was a difficult night, yes, but we can't accept that," said Toulon backs coach Pierre Mignoni.
"I'll keep to myself what we said to the players. It's not acceptable to play like that."
Top 14, Round 14 results:
Toulouse 15 Racing-Metro 9
Castres 27 Montpellier 9
La Rochelle 19 Grenoble 15
Oyonnax 12 Bayonne 9
Bordeaux-Begles 46 Brive 10
Lyon 16-13 ASM Clermont
Stade Francais 30-6 Toulon
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Stade Francais 14 10 0 4 336 328 4 44
Toulon 14 9 0 5 403 266 6 42
Clermont 14 9 0 5 344 235 5 41
Racing-Metro 14 8 0 6 302 260 5 37
Bordeaux-Begles 14 7 0 7 397 307 7 35
Toulouse 14 7 0 7 305 277 5 33
Grenoble 14 7 0 7 356 416 5 33
Montpellier 14 7 0 7 278 271 3 31
Oyonnax 14 6 0 8 284 286 5 29
Bayonne 14 5 1 8 267 276 6 28
Brive 14 6 0 8 277 348 3 27
Lyon 14 6 0 8 256 345 2 26
La Rochelle 14 5 1 8 275 393 3 25
Castres 14 5 0 9 270 342 4 24
Source: AFP
