
AS TEAMS jostle for a place in the top six, Albi are the new leaders, while Pia and St Estève-XIII Catalan moved ahead of Limoux and Villefranche.
With Carcassonne having a blank weekend, Albi took advantage to overhaul them with a 30-4 win over Avignon in a match played as part of a triple-header at Elite 2 club Carpentras.
Avignon winger Ilies Hammouch opened the scoring before centre Clément Tailhades and stand-off Brad Wall notched first-half tries for Albi.
Full back Romain Franco claimed two in the second period, Wall crossed again and centre Hnaloan Budden rounded off Albi’s scoring.
St Estève-XIII Catalan, Limoux, Pia and Villefranche shared the same number of league points before the weekend, just below Carcassonne and Albi.
The young Catalans improved their position with a 26-16 victory over Limoux while Pia also moved up after dominating Villefranche.
Limoux were 12-6 ahead at the break as a result of two Matis Dall’Asta penalty-goals and a converted try by hooker Lucas Ribas.
But in the second half, St Estève began to establish a healthy lead, as scrum-half Mateo Jimenez-Lopez touched down from Bruno Castany’s kick through before Corentin Rey posted a second try.
When winger Léo Darrelatour sped over the line, St Estève took a 14-point lead, though Quentin Garrouste on the opposite flank saved the bonus point for Limoux when he crossed for the final try.
Pia overwhelmed Villefranche 50-24 – a surprisingly wide score partly explained by the red card shown to visiting centre Dredin Sorensen at the start of the second half.
With Pia scrum-half Lenny Chachoua prominent, Les Baroudeurs romped to a 42-12 lead on the hour, with Chachoua, centre Théo Bonneriez and centre Damien Huescar all touching down twice.
Just outside the leading six, Villeneuve moved ahead of their opponents St Gaudens with a 40-16 victory.
Toulouse came close to recording their first win of the season when they just failed to edge Lézignan, both sides scoring four tries.
It was 12-12 at half-time as Toulouse forward and captain Wail Skoundri went over twice and Lézignan’s recent signing from Leeds, Paul Momirovski, created tries for Luc Brocas and Dorian Gouzy.
Lézignan pulled ahead at the start of the second period, Gouzy going over for his second and Jordan Flovie on the other wing also touching down.
The three conversions of Thibault Marty proved decisive and although Toulouse’s Belhadri crossed in the 67th minute, Sébastien Raguin’s men had to be satisfied with the bonus point at 22-18.
Results
Avignon 4 Albi 30
Pia 50 Villefranche 24
St Estève-XIII Catalan 26 Limoux 16
Toulouse 18 Lézignan 22
Villeneuve 40 St Gaudens 16
Bye: Carcassonne
Fixtures
Saturday, January 25
Albi v Villefranche
Lézignan v Carcassonne
Limoux v Toulouse
Sunday, January 26
Avignon v Villeneuve
St Gaudens v St Estève-XIII Catalan
Bye: Villefranche
Table
Albi 29 pts
Carcassonne 27 pts
Pia 25 pts
St Estève-XIII Catalan 25 pts
Limoux 23 pts
Villefranche 22 pts
Villeneuve 21 pts
Lézignan 20 pts
St Gaudens 20 pts
Avignon 11 pts
Toulouse 2 pts