Toulouse pile on more misery for Stade Francais

Toulouse crushed Stade Francais 29-0 on Saturday as the Paris giants, who had been locked in a bitter, cross-Channel wrangle over English flanker James Haskell, ended their week on a low note.

Fly-half David Skrela scored 19 points as Stade were left in danger of missing out of the season-ending French Top 14 play-offs for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

Victory saw Toulouse move back into fourth place above Toulon who edged a 21-20 win over Biarritz.

If Racing-Metro beat Montpellier later on Saturday, Stade will be nine points adrift of the sixth and last play-off place with five matches remaining.

Castres reclaimed top spot off Clermont - who beat defending champions Perpignan on Friday - with an impressive 35-10 win over Brive. “It was a catastrophic first half,” admitted Stade coach Jacques Delmas.

“There were too many parts of our game in the second half which were deficient, we lost a lot in one-on-ones against a team like Toulouse who were at maximum efficiency.”

The build-up to the game had been overshadowed by the bitter row between Stade and the English Rugby Football Union over Haskell.

Stade’s request to have the 24-year-old flanker released from England duty on what is a blank Six Nations weekend was flatly turned down by the RFU, who insisted there was an agreement allowing them to hold on to the player.

Skrela gave Toulouse the lead in the 22nd minute with a finely executed penalty.

The former France fly-half added a second penalty six minutes later as the visitors piled on the pressure and converted another on the stroke of half-time.

Toulouse extended their lead with a try by flanker Gregory Lamboley in the 47th minute, sparked by an up and under by Skrela which Stade failed to gather inside their 22.

Skrela added the conversion to make it 16-0 and made it five from five kicks in the 55th minute with another penalty as Toulouse went 19-0 to the good and yet another penalty just after the hour mark.

Stade were out for the count by the time giant prop Cencus Johnston crashed over in the 66th minute which saw Skrela convert for 29-0.

Castres had their victory wrapped up by half-time against Brive with their main points provider being fly-half Romain Teulet, who kicked 15 points and scored one of his side’s four tries.

Victory left the Castres coaching team satisfied as they eye their first appearance in the play-offs since 1995.

“Today (Saturday) we asked the players to assume the status of leaders because they were complaining that they had not been recognised as such during the season,” said co-head coach Laurent Labit.

“I believe that they fulfilled that role. Brive had a lot of possession but they failed to pierce our defence very often.

“On our part we were very effective at the right moments and didn’t allow anything to really get past us.”

Toulon pulled off a thrilling victory over Biarritz, who had looked in control with both veteran French internationals Damien Traille and Dmitri Yachvili each scoring a try.

However, Argentinian kicker Felipe Contepomi kept Toulon in touch with three penalties and then calmly kicked the decisive conversion after hooker Jean-Charles Orioli had touched down three minutes from time.

The relegation battle saw a bad day for Labit’s former club Montauban as they lost what could prove to be a crucial match 22-14 against fellow strugglers Bourgoin.

That defeat, allied to Bayonne’s 46-13 demolition of bottom club Albi, where centre Lionel Mazars scored two of their five tries, saw Montauban drop into the relegation places.

PARIS, Monday, AFP