Watch: Former All Black centre lays out French flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert
Former All Blacks and Blues midfielder Francis Saili has opened the Top 14 season in bruising style, delivering a crunching cover tackle on French flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert in Biarritz Olympique’s upset win over the Bordeaux Begles.
Previously in the Pro D2 league, Biarritz earned promotion to this year’s Top 14 season after beating Bayonne in the promotion-relegation clash. Heavyweights Bordeaux finished fourth in the Top 14 last season so Biarritz headed into the opening game as severe underdogs.
Bolstered by the likes of former All Black Francis Saili, who was signed from Harlequins, and former Wallabies Tevita Kuridrani and Henry Speight, Biarritz came out and stunned Bordeaux in the first half racing out to a 17-3 lead.
With three minutes remaining in the half, Bordeaux flyhalf Jalibert sparked a break down the right touchline only to be bundled out of play by a flying Saili in cover defence who put a dominant tackle on the young French 10.
A shaken Jalibert threw his arms up in the air in protest to the touch judge to no avail, as the home crowd cheered on their newly promoted side.
The tackle by Saili was his second big defensive play of the game, after an earlier rush tackle helped set up Brett Herron for the first try of the game.
Saili flew out of the line to put a hit on an unsuspecting Bordeaux reciever, who spilled the ball into the arms of Herron who raced away downfield to score against the run of play.
The Biarritz crowed was sent into raptures as their side took a 10-0 lead following the try.
The first try of the #Top14 season!!
Brett Herron scores it after a MONSTER hit from Francis Saili ?#SaffasAbroad #BOUBB pic.twitter.com/cceDu9CrQ4
ADVERTISEMENT— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 4, 2021
The home side added another try and a penalty goal early in the second half to extend the lead to 27-3 which proved too much of an ask for Bordeaux to come back from, handing the club a massive first scalp in the Top 14.
In other Top 14 fixtures, Ngani Laumape made his debut for Stade Francias in a 36-21 loss to powerhouse Racing 92 on the back of a solid performance from former Wallaby Kurtley Beale who ran for 109 metres and had two line breaks.
Laumape was held to 15 run metres on seven carries in his Top 14 debut, but was able to shake four defenders and provide a couple of offloads. Wallabies wing Sefa Naivalu bagged a try for Stade on the right wing.
Montpellier and Toulon shared a 24-all draw at the Stade Mayol after an extra time try to former England international Zach Mercer. Montpellier stole a win from Toulon’s grasp after eight penalty goals from Anthony Belleau.
With time up on the clock, Montpellier received a penalty from directly in front which Springbok centre Jan Serfontein tapped quickly. After multiple pick-and-go attempts, Mercer picked up the ball with the line begging and scored right next to the posts to rob Toulon of the match.
Comments on RugbyPass
Can’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
11 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
11 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to comments