Montpellier survive Edinburgh scare
CHAMPIONS CUP REPORT: Montpellier overcame a late scare to defeat Edinburgh Rugby 21-15 at the Altrad Stadium.
The French side took the lead after five minutes when Ruan Pienaar provided the decoy for Henry Immelman who powered over the try line with the former smashing over the conversion.
Edinburgh hit back after three stunning offloads released the Scottish side down the field and after a lovely clear out from Dougie Fife, Stuart McInally dived over for the try.
Despite Edinburgh having territorial advantage, Montpellier were able to force the ball wide after 30 minutes to Benjamin Fall who beat Blair Kinghorn and that allowed Fall to power down the right wing and score with ease.
Minutes later, Nico Janse Van Rensburg fought off a pair of tackles before the ball was booted wide for Gabriel Ngandebe who had room to catch and stroll over the try line.
Montpellier’s Jacques Du Plessis was then sin binned and Edinburgh took full advantage in the second half when Mata provided the final offload for Fife to dive over for a crucial try but Simon Hickey pulled the conversion wide.
Edinburgh Rugby then did everything right after Scott, Kinghorn and Fife made big gains but Simon Berghan was penalised for obstruction after Bradbury dived over for the cancelled out turnaround try.
In a thrilling final 20 minutes, the Scottish side huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the Montpellier house down but the match provided late drama as Louis Picamoles was inches away from securing a bonus point for Montpellier and denying Edinburgh one of their own.
The ball was spread wide when Picamoles fell short and was eventually knocked on as Wayne Barnes blew his whistle for the final time.
Edinburgh Rugby host RC Toulon next weekend at BT Murrayfield, while Montpellier will travel to face Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park.
The scorers:
For Montpellier:
Tries: Immelman, Fall, Ngandebe
Cons: Pienaar 3
For Edinburgh:
Tries: McInally, Fife
Con: Hickey
Pen: Hickey
Yellow card: Bismarck Du Plessis
Montpellier: 15 Henry Immelman, 14 Benjamin Fall, 13 Vincent Martin, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Gabriel Ngandebe, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Enzo Sanga, 8 Louis Picamoles (captain), 7 Wiaan Liebenberg, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Paul Willemse, 4 Nico Janse van Rensburg, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili
Replacements: 16 Vincent Giudicelli, 17 Grégory Fichten, 18 Antoine Guillamon, 19 Kevin Kornath, 20 Kelian Galletier, 21 Julien Tomas, 22 Yvan Reilhac, 23 Alexandre Dumoulin
Edinburgh: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 James Johnstone, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Dougie Fife, 10 Simon Hickey, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Magnus Bradbury, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Ben Toolis, 3 WP Nel, 2 Stuart McInally (captain), 1 Allan Dell
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Luke Hamilton, 20 Jamie Ritchie, 21 Sean Kennedy, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Chris Dean
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Matthew O’Grady (England), Paul Dix (England)
TMO: Rowan Kitt (England)
@ChampionsCup
