Massacre au Stade Charlety
A good signing.
By Zandra LaPoi
January 19 2011
After a few very enjoyable, cultural days wandering around beautiful Paris I knew at the back of my mind that all this loveliness would be nothing but a distant memory once the rugby started! Not wrong was I! Both Leeds and Stade Francais were playing the big guns, Stade had numerous internationals on show and, unfortunately for us, most of them were playing in the backs! Qualification from the group stage of the Amlin Cup beckoned, and this was going to be a good test of Leeds’ new found character.
So armed with new fleece, lucky day-glo hat and a new pad for my notes, off I went in search of James Haskell, whoops I meant, a huge cup upset by the mighty Leeds Carnegie!
We were meeting in the Cafe Bar Gentilly. Now, I am sure there are some that wouldn’t mind paying nine Euros for a pint of Lager, however I am not one of them and once I regained consciousness I realised my mistake, DRINK AT THE BAR, IT’S CHEAPER!
Once reinforcements arrived in the shape of Ianb58, Skibumski and Mrs Skibumski we moved off to the ground. Much money was spent at the Stade Francais Boutique. I love pink, although Adidas need to have a look at their sizing policy as that shirt is definitely NOT a medium and wouldn’t fit an anorexic Barbie!
Leeds started brightly and in less than three minutes we were winning, a penalty by CT, 0 – 3 to Carnegie! Whilst I prayed for a Time Machine to take us to 80 minutes, Stade levelled, Lionel Beauxis with a penalty. Still buoyant and full of self belief, Leeds competed with Stade for a short period. Having won possession from Stade, Sharky passed to young Dents who made a cracking run (oh how I love forwards!) but unfortunately and luckily for Stade the move broke down. There was a lovely display of skill from the Stade No 7 with a cheeky little up and under that nearly came off for him. Then, a minute later and after ill discipline from Leeds at the ruck, Beauxis scored another penalty, 6 – 3. Thankfully a missed Stade drop goal attempt after 18 minutes still made the game well within our reach.
And then it happened, Stade decided to stop poncing around the pitch in all their pink glory and ‘unleash hell’!
It all started when, after 20 minutes, Thommo was sin binned for an offence at the ruck, so with Leeds down to 14, Stade smelt blood. Our guys defended well soaking up waves of Stade pressure, one cracking tackle from Alfie stopping a certain Stade try. After 25 minutes, Alfie was taken off and Plug came on to cover hooker. More good defence by our boys followed then, with Thommo still with two minutes to serve in the bin, Plug, our cover hooker was also sin binned. So we were down to 13 men, not ideal when facing a team full of internationals!
After 31 minutes Stade got their reward, a well worked try, scored by Hugo Southwell after a sneaky little knock down by another pink-cladded hunk! Beauxis added the conversion, 13 – 3.
Again, we were optimistic, we could still give Stade a game and did do for two whole minutes, but then Ollie Phillips scored a try, after a lucky bounce, bringing us back down to earth. Thankfully, Beauxis missed the conversion, so it was 18 – 3 to Stade when we went in for half time.
Farmertyke arrived on the scene having made a tactical move during half time, now there were five of us! All was not lost, Leeds came out for the second half with 15 players on the pitch! Stade were worried, I could see it in their eyes!
Within two minutes of the restart Stade scored again. Roncero with the try and Beauxis with the conversion, 25 – 3 after 42 minutes. With our heads still spinning and our hearts heavy, Stade were back on the try line and the TV Judge was called into action. The inevitable happened and on 45 minutes, Stade got their reward, their bonus point try and the subsequent conversion, so after 45 minutes we were 32 – 3 down, the match way beyond us.
To be honest, Stade then eased off, their mission well and truly accomplished. On 48 minutes Hints was taken off, clutching his head, Vinyl came on, glad to see him back, this can only be good experience for him.
Funniest moment of the game came from Skibumski with this amusing observation, ‘the Stade fans have more drummers than we have season ticket holders’! So on 52 minutes we gave them a rousing rendition of ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’, which they loved!
The boys kept battling and on 61 minutes got their reward when Davinci Code went over. CT nailed the conversion making it 32 – 10. We didn’t give up and had two further chances to score, but as usual, failed to capitalise. Just as the final whistle was approaching Stade piddled all over our chips with a last minute try and conversion. Who scored, I don’t know, by this time it didn’t matter. 39 – 10 final score.
To sum up, Stade were better than us, way better. They were full of internationals, 12 on the pitch at the start. They were clinical and made their chances count, we didn’t, and that was the main difference. We must find that cutting edge; to turn attacks into points otherwise we will be winging our way back into the Championship. I have no doubt that the boys, especially the younger lads, will have learned a great deal from this game. Our forwards can hold their own against all comers; we also need the backs to.
The Stade fans were great hosts, Dominique, Nicholas, the drummer in the straw hat, just a few of them. I am now ‘sans’ day-glo hat, I gave it away, along with a Tykes scarf and a Lardies’ Beer carrier! Thanks to Monsieur Haskell for taking the time to come and see all of us Leeds fans after the game and signing anything shoved under his nose! Thanks also to Sian for pouring me into a taxi, making sure I got back to my Hotel!
This was my first European away game, I loved it and can’t wait for next year, please let there be some next year! Oh and if anyone finds my Stade Francais calendar, full of lovely, French nakedness, please can they send it on to Pontecarlo?
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Miserati - and Proud to be!
Hope you found somewhere good to eat on Monday night Farmertyke, nice to meet you both.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:19:19:05:24 by haxbytyke.
I hope for more French teams to come to Headingley in the future mainly Toulouse
Some say he has a Tykes flag with team signatures on.
Others say that he's doing the same to the Carnegie flag,
All we know is that he's called Leeds carnegie signed flag.
Just need to get my Pixie sized 'M' Stade shirt changed, another bloody Calendar and a new day-glo hat and I will be sorted!
Skibumski and Farmer, nice to meet you both!
Zandra YaPoI
YaPoI - Yorkshire and Proud of It
'proficiscor in una'
Quote:Zandra LaPoI
.../...
Very very good report !!
Some statistics of this match :
Line Out :
SF : 10 wins ( 7 on first half time [1HT] ans 3 on 2HT ) and 1 lost ( 1 + 0 )on their own's.
Leeds : 17 wins ( 9 + 8 ) and 1 lost ( 0 + 1)
Scrum :
SF : 6 wins ( 2 + 4 )
Leeds : 5 wins ( 3 + 2 ) and 1 lost ( 1 + 0)
Penalties :
SF : 13 ( 4 + 11 ) and 1 Free Kick (Leeds Scrum)
Ground fault : 3 (0+3)
Offside : 2 (0+2)
Blocking the ball : 6 (3+3)
Scrum Leeds : 3 (1+2)
+ 10 meters : 1 (0+1)
Leeds : 8 ( 7 + 1 )
Note : Only ONE panalty on second half !!!
Ground fault : 2 (2+0)
Blocking the ball : 2 (2+0)
Scrum SF : 2 (1+1)
Scrum Leeds : 1 (1+0)
+ 10 meters : 1 (1+0)
... but 2 yellow card : Repeatedly offending and Tackling the jumper in the air.
About the kickers :
Lionel Beauxis : 5 on 7 kicks (71,4%)
Noel Oelchig : 1 on 1 (The last convertion on drop goal)
==> SF 6 on 8 : 75 %
Ceiron Thomas : 2 on 2 : 100 % for Leeds
Note that Ceiron convert the try without a tee
.
SF take one penalty-touch and make a try (29')
Leeds take 3 penalties-touch (51', 68' 76'), 2 penalties play directly (51' and 75') and one scrum (55') ... without a try in final.
The match of man decided by officials is Pascal Papé.
For me it's Julien Arias very very active on three tries !!!!
NDi.
Quote:Ndi__SFQuote:Zandra LaPoI
.../...
Very very good report !!
Some statistics of this match :
Line Out :
SF : 10 wins ( 7 on first half time [1HT] ans 3 on 2HT ) and 1 lost ( 1 + 0 )on their own's.
Leeds : 17 wins ( 9 + 8 ) and 1 lost ( 0 + 1)
Scrum :
SF : 6 wins ( 2 + 4 )
Leeds : 5 wins ( 3 + 2 ) and 1 lost ( 1 + 0)
Penalties :
SF : 13 ( 4 + 11 ) and 1 Free Kick (Leeds Scrum)
Ground fault : 3 (0+3)
Offside : 2 (0+2)
Blocking the ball : 6 (3+3)
Scrum Leeds : 3 (1+2)
+ 10 meters : 1 (0+1)
Leeds : 8 ( 7 + 1 )
Note : Only ONE panalty on second half !!!
Ground fault : 2 (2+0)
Blocking the ball : 2 (2+0)
Scrum SF : 2 (1+1)
Scrum Leeds : 1 (1+0)
+ 10 meters : 1 (1+0)
... but 2 yellow card : Repeatedly offending and Tackling the jumper in the air.
About the kickers :
Lionel Beauxis : 5 on 7 kicks (71,4%)
Noel Oelchig : 1 on 1 (The last convertion on drop goal)
==> SF 6 on 8 : 75 %
Ceiron Thomas : 2 on 2 : 100 % for Leeds
Note that Ceiron convert the try without a tee
SF take one penalty-touch and make a try (29')
Leeds take 3 penalties-touch (51', 68' 76'), 2 penalties play directly (51' and 75') and one scrum (55') ... without a try in final.
The match of man decided by officials is Pascal Papé.
For me it's Julien Arias very very active on three tries !!!!
NDi.
Very interesting.