Montpellier secure maiden victory
Montpellier clinched their first ever Heineken Cup victory, scoring the winning try in the final play of the match to beat Bath 24-22 at Stade Yves du Manoir on Saturday.
The hosts got off to a flying start with wing Pierre Berard touching down with the game just a minute old. Beneoit Paillaugue slotted the conversion to round off the perfect opening.
Olly Barkley responded with a penalty for Bath after nine minutes and the former England star also added the extras to Ryan Caldwell’s late first-half try to take the visitors into the break 10-7 ahead.
Paillaugue levelled things up early in the second period with his first penalty before second-row Caldwell grabbed his and Bath’s second try to give the English side the lead.
A converted Alex Tulou try for Montpellier levelled the scores but England wing Matt Banahan looked to have won the game for Bath with his 71st minute try. Tom Heathcote couldn’t convert as he had done with Caldwell’s second score.
But the game had one final twist as wing Timoci Nagusa crossed in the game’s final move to level the scores.
The responsibility of the conversion fell to replacement Martin Bustos Moyana who made no mistake in ensuring he grabbed a first ever Heineken Cup victory for Montpellier.
The scorers:
For Montpellier:
Tries: Bérard, Tulou, Nagusa
Cons: Paillaugue, Bustos Moyano
Pen: Paillaugue
For Bath:
Tries: Caldwell 2, Banahan
Cons: Barkley, Heathcote
Pen: Barkley
The teams:
Montpellier: 15 J-B Peyras Loustalet, 14 Timoci Nagusa, 13 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 12 Thomas Combezou, 11 Pierre Bérard, 10 Santiago Fernandez, 9 Benoit Paillaugue, 8 Masi Matadigo, 7 Rémy Martin, 6 Vassili Bost, 5 Joe Tuineau, 4 Mickael Demarco, 3 Maximiliano Bustos, 2 Mickael Ladhuie, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili.
Replacements: 16 Joan Caudullo, 17 Na’ama Leleimalefaga, 18 Kevin Kervarec, 19 Drickus Hancke, 20 Alex Tulou, 21 Julien Tomas, 22 Yoan Audrin, 23 Martin Bustos Moyano.
Bath: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Olly Woodburn, 13 Dan Hipkiss, 12 Matt Banahan, 11 Tom Biggs, 10 Tom Heathcote, 9 Michael Claassens, 8 Simon Taylor, 7 Francois Louw (captain), 6 Ben Skirving, 5 Ryan Caldwell, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 David Wilson, 2 Ross Batty, 1 Charlie Beech.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Dixon, 17 David Flatman, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Andy Beattie, 20 Guy Mercer, 21 Chris Cook, 22 Sam Vesty.
