St Estève-XIII Catalan inflicted only the second defeat of the season on Elite 1 Championship leaders Lézignan, who were toppled 32-16 and conceded six tries.
Lézignan paid the price for their indiscipline. They were twice down to twelve men following the sin binnings of Rémy Marginet and Timothey Grosjean, which allowed the young Catalans to take control.
The visitors were 10-0 ahead towards the end of the first half, with tries by Jean-Baptiste Bousquet and Marginet, but their progress was disrupted by the first yellow card as centre Mathieu Laguerre took advantage to dive over for the Dragons’ reserves’ opening score. After the turnaround, the Catalans profited again. Corentin Le Cam went over and when Grosjean was sin binned, César Rougé’s penalty brought the sides level at 10-all.
Ugo Tison had a big hand in the Catalans’ increasing dominance, plunging over the line after stealing the ball from Marginet, then putting up a high kick which produced a second try for Le Cam.
Lézignan came back as Jason Baitieri touched down from Thomas Lacan’s kick which rebounded from the post, bringing the score to 20-16. But it was all wrapped up when Le Cam caught another high kick and offloaded for Romain Khedimi to touch down, and Florian Vailhen crashed over for the last try, depriving an off-colour Lézignan of even a bonus point.
With a relatively straightforward 42-10 win over St Gaudens, still propping up the table, Carcassonne move ahead of Lézignan at the top. With their forwards dominant, the Canaries ran in three first-half tries before St Gaudens rallied to bring the score to 16-10. But the second period was all Carcassonne’s as they added five more tries, including two each from centre Sophien Bitigri and winger Georgy Gambaro.
Limoux, who beat in-form Albi 34-14, push up into second place on points difference as Lézignan drop to third. Maxime Grésèque’s men had every right to be wary of Albi, who presented a real threat as they led 14-12 at half-time, with tries from Nittim Pedrero and Julien Cancé and three goals from Baptiste Fabre in reply to tries from Zac Santo and Quentin Garrouste and two goals from Pat Templeman. But that was as far as Albi would get. Limoux seized back the initiative to score four more tries, including a second from Santo, from deep inside his own half.
Villeneuve kept alive their hopes of top-six qualification with a 35-22 defeat of Toulouse. The Leopards held a 24-6 lead at the end of the first half but stumbled in the second, as Toulouse ran in three tries, but picked themselves up to regain their grasp, Dimitri Biscarro crossing twice.
RESULTS
Carcassonne 42 St Gaudens 10
Limoux 34 Albi 14
St Estève-XIII Catalan 32 Lézignan 16
Villeneuve 35 Toulouse 22
Bye: Avignon
FIXTURES
Saturday 26 March
Carcassonne v Villeneuve 15:00
Sunday 27 March
Avignon v St Gaudens 15:30
Lézignan v Limoux 15:00
Toulouse v St Estève-XIII Catalan 15:00
Dates and times tbc
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