Perpignan 26 - 19 Celtic Warriors

By Dai
December 14 2003

The Warriors travelled to France hoping to improve on last weekends victory against Calvsano but were unable to beat Perpignan on their own patch. However, the Warriors managed to keep the margin of the defeat down to 7 points giving them a valuable bonus point. Read in for more.

Perpignan 26 - 19 Warriors

    Despite a battling second half performance form the Warriors they were unable to prevent Perpignan from outscoring them by 4 tries to 1 and winning by a 7 point margin. However, not many teams go to France and come away with a victory and so the fact that the Warriors managed to keep Perpignans winning margin down to only 7 points means that the Warriors pick up a bonus point for their efforts.

    In the early stages of the game neither side were able to score - Manny Edmonds missed penalty attempt being the closest that either side came to getting some points on the board. However, the Perpignan forwards were able to control the set pieces during the first half and when Kevin Morgan was forced to concede a line out near the Warriors try line Perpignan were able to use their forward strength to get over the line for the games first try. Christophe Porcu was the player who got the ball over the line and Manny Edmonds was able to add the extra 2 points with a successful conversion. Perpignan then had further try scoring opportunities but Dan Luger had a try disallowed for a forward pass and Dafydd James did well to hold up Ludovic Lousteau as he crossed the line.

   The Warriors looked to be heading into half time only 7 points down but Lionel Mallier was able to dive over for Perpignan's second try, converted by Edmonds, to put them 14 - 0 up. However, the Warriors did manage to get some points on the board before half time thanks to a Ceri Sweeney penalty which made the half time score 14 - 3.

   In the second half the Warriors were a different team. Some good ball retention by the forwards in the Perpignan 22 allowed Ceri Sweeney to put a clever kick in for Kevin Morgan to score the Warriors first try of the afternoon. Sweeney added the conversion and then slotted over a penalty to bring the Warriors back into contention at 14 - 13.

   With 20 minutes left Perpignan were able to score their third try through David Marty which extended their lead to 21 - 13 but replacement outside half Neil Jenkins was able to slot over 2 penalties after good attacking play by the Warriors to reduce the deficit to 21 - 19.  Unfortunately for the Warriors they were unable to get upfield to be in with a chance of snatching a victory. Instead Perpignan applied pressure in the scrum which allowed Rimas Alvarez Kairelis to score their fourth try to give them a bonus point. Manny Edmonds could have prevented the Warriors from gaining their bonus point but he missed the conversion and as a result the final score was 26 - 19.

   A win would have been good for the Warriors but now they have 2 important matches against Wasps and must try and target a win away from home against them if they are to have any chance of progressing to the quarter finals.

Warriors Scorers: Kevin Morgan (Try), Ceri Sweeney (1 Con, 2 pens), Neil Jenkins (2 pens)

Perpignan starting XV: F Cermeno; P Bomati, D Marty, C Manas, D Luger; M Edmonds, L Loustau; P Freshwater, M Konieckiewicz, N Mas, C Gaston, C Porcu, J Labat, L Mallier, R Alvarez-Kairelis.
Replacements: N Grelon, F Tournaire, M O'Driscoll, G le Corvec, J Fillol, N Laharrague, D Janin, D Herbert.

Warriors starting XV: Kevin Morgan; Gareth Wyatt, Sonny Parker, Gareth Thomas (capt), Dafydd James; Ceri Sweeney, Sililo Martens; Christian Loader, Matthew Rees, Gethin Jenkins, Brent Cockbain, Robert Sidoli, Maama Molitika, Richard Parks, Cory Harris.
Replacements: Christian Balshen, Geraint Morris, Deiniol Jones, Nathan Budgett, Paul John, Neil Jenkins, Jonny Bryant.