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Cardiff's Challenge Cup comeback falls short in Lyon

By PA
Gabriel Hamer-Webb

Cardiff had to settle for a bonus point after kicking off their European Challenge Cup campaign with a thrilling 37-26 defeat in Lyon.

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Matt Sherratt’s side staged a strong second-half comeback as tries from Ellis Bevan and Gabriel Hamer-Webb gave them hope of clawing out an improbable win.

But the French side responded well in the latter stages and a swift response from Esteban Gonzalez, coupled with two penalties from Martin Meliande, ended the visitors’ hopes.

Fixture
Challenge Cup
Lyon
37 - 26
Full-time
Cardiff Rugby
All Stats and Data

Cardiff had been up for it from the start, with an early Josh Adams try converted by Tinus de Beer, putting the Welsh side in front.

Danny Southworth then crossed to restore Cardiff’s advantage after a try from Ethan Dumortier had helped levelled the score, but Dumortier’s second, after a try for Alfred Parisien, ensured the hosts would claim a 17-14 half-time lead.

Lyon looked set to run away with it after Yanis Charcosset extended their lead early in the second half, but when Bevan squeezed over following a strong scrum it sparked the late recovery.

Connacht defied difficult weather conditions in Galway to get their Challenge Cup campaign under way with a convincing 43-12 win over Zebre.

The Irish side rebounded from an early deficit with a double from debutant Chay Mullins and a third try from Dylan Tierney-Martin giving them a 17-5 half-time lead.

Connacht pulled away after the break with Mullins completing his hat-trick, Paul Boyle crossing twice and Santiago Cordero also adding his name to the scoresheet.

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Fixture
Challenge Cup
Connacht
43 - 12
Full-time
Zebre
All Stats and Data

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

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