FOR the second season in a row, Albi and Carcassonne will meet in the championship final, with the big match at Narbonne on Sunday, May 25.
Carcassonne were pushed all the way by gutsy Villeneuve in their semi-final at a rainy Stade Albert Domec, but held on for an 11-6 triumph.
Villeneuve, who had beaten St Estève-XIII Catalan on their own ground, were clearly underdogs against the current champions but belied their sixth place in the table to put on a performance which Carcassonne had to pull out all the stops to counter.
The Canaries were rattled by Villeneuve’s persistence and gave away three early penalties, all goaled by Jackson Moule, before Lucas Albert dummied his way through, Clément Herrero converting, to level the scores after 25 minutes.
Though Carcassonne were boosted when Bastien Alberola and Jowasa Drodrolagi came on, they continued to drive the ball up the middle, but took the lead after the break when Enzo Arnaud took advantage of a pass by Albert and offload from Bastien Canet.
The score stayed at 10-6 for the remaining 35 minutes. The two sides raised the tempo, with some magnificent last-ditch defending. Villeneuve had a try disallowed after the ball hit a post but, unable to find a way through, that was as close as they came.
Edenn Rogers-Smith was sinbinned four minutes from the end but it did not matter, Albert adding a celebratory field-goal as the hooter sounded.
Watched by a 3,500 home crowd, Albi booked their place in the final with a 26-8 victory over hard-pressed Limoux.
With Tony Gigot directing play and forwards Chase Bernard, Mickaël Goudemand and Hnalaon Budden making their presence felt up front, Albi dominated the first half to build a 16-0 lead.
Centre Clément Tailhades powered over twice, each time from Gigot’s pass, while in between prop Ben Shea seized on a loose ball to touch down.
Limoux had done well to snatch victory at Pia but were forced to spend much of the first half defending until, four minutes from half-time, Romain Puso profited from some confusion behind the line to claim a try from Matis Dall’Asta’s kick ahead.
Revitalised after the break, the Grizzlies closed the gap to 16-8 when Widnes-bound prop Morgan McWhirter picked up a dropped ball by Adrien Saliès to go over from 12 metres out. Dall’Asta missed the simple conversion.
But on the hour, Albi’s lively fullback Maxime Rostang surprised the defence and darted through from dummy-half, Gigot adding a third conversion.
Limoux continued to rally and came close when ever-dangerous fullback Zac Santo was forced into touch by Budden and Gigot.
But following a Romain Franco break, Gigot went blindside from the play-the-ball to send Saliès in for Albi’s fifth try.
Five minutes from full-time, Johnathon Ford was sinbinned for a fairly innocuous high tackle on Rostang. There was no coming back for Limoux as Albi sailed into their second final of the season.
Results
Championship semi-finals
Albi 26 Limoux 8
Carcassonne 11 Villeneuve 6
Fixture
Sunday, May 25
Championship final
Albi v Carcassonne
(at Parc des Sports et de l’Amitié, Narbonne)
