*





Manu Tuilagi smashes Tom Williams


Top14 player imposter!


JDV smashed by Benoit August


The Northampton Saints 30m scrum!


Bastareaud huge hit on Rory Lamont


All Blacks skills - Pt 2 In the backyard


Trinh-Duc sets up Harinordoquy try


Wales vs England 1999


Greg Holmes great hit on Francois Louw



Sunday, August 30, 2009

Top 14 Highlights - Round 2

As always, all eyes are on the French Top 14 at the moment as the global interest for the tournament picks up once again, thanks in a large part to the big names that have joined this season.

The quality of rugby is high, as the influx of foreign players has added to an already impressive standard of play.

Bayonne met Stade Francais in Spain in front of 32 000, for the first ever Top 14 game on foreign soil. Six tries were scored, including one for English loose forwad James Haskell, and two for Bayonne wing Benjamin Fall.

Another Englishman, Iain Balshaw, featured prominently as Biarritz beat Albi convincingly 39-6. Balshaw scored his first points for his new club inside ten minutes, as he showed the kind of finishing that he's capable of when on top form.

Balshaw ended up with two tries, and played a significant part in one other.

Clermont hammered Montauban 37-16 as their form looks to be an ominous sign for all before them. Anthony Floch scored two tries, with captain Aurelien Rougerie scoring one of his own after a neat chip. Former Springbok pocket rocket Brent Russell scored after a 50m sprint and incredible pickup just before the line.

Toulouse were perhaps the most impressive though, as they tore apart Brive with their superb running game, wining the match 38-0.

Centre Yann David was sensational with his counter attacking play, setting up Maxime Medard and Cedric Heymans. Vincent Clerc crossed later after a Byron Kelleher break, and Remi Lamerat sealed off the win at the death after a pinpoint cross-kick from replacement fly-half Florian Fritz.

This is a more complete package of highlights than last week, so we hope you enjoy. The best of Round three's action will be shown in a few days time.


Time: 08:58
Community: Discuss the Top 14 on our forum


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29 Comments:

  • first comment! great tries!

    By Anonymous Paddy, IRE, at August 31, 2009 12:43 am  

  • Love top 14, love France. Cheers from Canada

    By Anonymous lecanuck, at August 31, 2009 1:39 am  

  • Toulouse produce an unneccesary amount of class backs

    By Anonymous Ste, at August 31, 2009 1:48 am  

  • W O W french rugby will be good this year


    And i have to agree with Ste. WTF???

    Michalak, Elissalde, Kelleher, Fritz, Jauzion, David, Medard, Clerc, Heymans, and I hear this Lamerat guy is on form too???

    Really hope they do better in the H Cup this year

    By Blogger Unknown, at August 31, 2009 1:52 am  

  • Nice to see Clerc back and scoring tries.

    Like Ste said, Toulouse is just such a great team...I like them, but since they've got so many good players, I also love to see it when they lose.

    By Anonymous gabba, at August 31, 2009 2:24 am  

  • Also, does anyone know whatever happened to Ngwenya? I know he 'played' for Biarritz (did he ever really play in games, though?) 2007/8 (I think), but is he still there?

    I can't seem to find any information on it.

    Cheers

    By Anonymous zizzou, at August 31, 2009 2:33 am  

  • you have to love french rugby, it's just pure champagne

    By Blogger Unknown, at August 31, 2009 3:01 am  

  • gotta love the flyhacks

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 4:05 am  

  • Yann David is an incredible talent. He'll be in French colors by the 6N.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 5:43 am  

  • What were those Stade players complaining about during that first try?

    By Anonymous scoops, at August 31, 2009 7:14 am  

  • wow i think thats the most amount of tries ive seen that have been soccer kicked

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 8:08 am  

  • Wrong score in the test
    Clermont hammered Montauban 37-16 and not 37-6 as in the text

    By Anonymous Stubb, at August 31, 2009 8:20 am  

  • great tries, but why so many missed tackles? Still great class in Top14 this season

    By Anonymous Wiki, at August 31, 2009 12:51 pm  

  • agreat to see brent russle back... hes such a good player!!

    By Blogger Unknown, at August 31, 2009 2:22 pm  

  • it does say 37-16 to Clermont...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 3:51 pm  

  • Yann David is center not fullback, awesome player, for sure in the French Squad for autumn tests.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 3:52 pm  

  • ngwenya was in the biarritz highlights. would have scored a try if that 18 year old fullback hadn't slotted in to dot down his first.

    By Blogger sacricketer, at August 31, 2009 3:57 pm  

  • Champions Tolouse? Are you sure? I thought it was USAP the final champion, afther their final against Clermont ...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 4:02 pm  

  • precision:yann david plays inside and outside center for toulouse, never fullback.

    By Blogger franz, at August 31, 2009 4:03 pm  

  • Yep, good to know that some people do actually read the articles..

    Apologies for the errors - written in a hurry and late at night :)

    Cheers guys

    By Blogger GMC, at August 31, 2009 4:15 pm  

  • God, watching this makes me think that maybe Ireland won't win a grandslam again next year.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 4:23 pm  

  • Hehe as I told you in 1st round comments, you can realize here that Yann David is such a great centre !
    That was a great game by Toulouse (was at the stadium) but they didn't manage to confirm it as they lost against the champion USAP this saturday...
    Yann David wasn't involved in a Stade Toulousain try this time as they didn't score any but he again put some incredible runs and hits !

    By Anonymous ToulouseFan, at August 31, 2009 5:12 pm  

  • Hey one question for ToulouseFan : is Donguy any good?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 31, 2009 6:28 pm  

  • Donguy isn't a top class player like Heymans or Clerc mais he's a good one. Fast, and quite good in defense.

    I played against him when I was 17 (he played in Bobigny team with Valentin Courrent) and it was clear that he was far better than every other young players.

    By Blogger Pitseleh, at August 31, 2009 8:26 pm  

  • I agree.
    He has been recruited few years ago to be a great replacement choice for Heymans or Clerc and has been put on the field for the main part of the 07/08 season as Clerc was hurt. He did really good this season and he was knocking at the XV de France door. But since then he doesn't play so often and his appearances are not that impressive...

    So he will always be a good replacement but unless he finds back his great past level or better he will have a lot to do to be the solution when Heymans will retire in few years.

    PS: I just read the article, the actual name of the youngster centre who scored the last try for Toulouse is Lamerat (not Lemerat), not a big deal. Anyway this guy was born in 1990, and is already a great powerful centre (1m85 and 100kgs) he or David will become Jauzion replacement when he will retire. He knows that if he doesn't find back his great level he will be put on the bench since this season so we might see a good fight for holding n°12 at Toulouse this season :D

    By Anonymous ToulouseFan, at September 01, 2009 12:15 am  

  • some good stuff, but overall meh. Lots of tries from balls toed ahead after opposition coughed it up...
    Biarritz made albi look awful!

    By Blogger granite, at September 01, 2009 5:03 am  

  • to clarify my last post, Biarritz looked so good, particularly running support, that Albi looked terrible!

    Is Biarritz a particularly good team?

    By Blogger granite, at September 01, 2009 8:39 am  

  • Biarritz can sometimes be a great team and sometimes terrific : they only won that game over the first 3 rounds at the moment.
    The point is that Albi just climbed from ProD2 and they have the lower funds of all Top14 teams.
    So they are not like Toulon and Racing, owned by millionnaires who can recruit foreign stars to reinforce their pretty poor team coming from lower divisions.

    By Anonymous ToulouseFan, at September 01, 2009 12:44 pm  

  • great vid - thanks RD

    By Anonymous Hackney Griffin, at September 01, 2009 2:46 pm  

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