A weekend in the Pyrenees

By Leipziger
December 6 2006

European battle is back on the agenda over the next two weekends with a double-header against Montauban. Friday sees us travel to the south of France for the second time this season before Montauban come to Kingston Park on Sunday 17th December.

Montauban Tarn et Garonne XV are competing in Europe for the fourth time, but the first since 2003/04 when they lost for the only time in continental competition at the Stade de Sapíac before this year, 8-43 to Harlequins in the second round.

Our opponents are 9th in the Top 14, or joint seventh on 33 points with Castres and Agen, having lost 30-21 away to local rivals Toulouse on Saturday. A week earlier Bayonne were the winners in Montauban by a single point, 17-18. Castres have drawn there recently, however European giants Stade Francais and Biarritz as well as Brive and Narbonne have lost there, whilst Montauban have also won away to Perpignan. As well as Bayonne, Toulouse are the only other team to have won at the Sapíac this season in the league.

Gérard Charissou’s squad is captained by fly-half Sébastien Fauque, and includes eleven internationals, although only flanker Marc Raynaud amongst these is French, and he lines up with four Uruguayans, two Romanians, a Georgian and a Canadian. The other major countries’ national players are South African flanker Jacobus Immelman and lock Rowan Frost from Ireland.

Skipper Fauque scored 16 points in Montauban’s last European match in Padova, with a try, four conversions and a penalty in his side’s eight-try 3-53 rout of the Italians. That win came a week after Brive stormed their rivals’ fortress with a 13-26 victory, with Georgian prop Avtandil Kopaliani the sole try scorer. What this means is that Montauban have lost both of their last two home matches in Europe.

Both Bath and London Irish have fallen in the Mid-Pyreenees region of France, the former in 2002/03 in the Greens’ only foray into the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup, but no English side has lost to Montauban on aggregate so far, so we should not want to be the first.

No time to update this with the teams tomorrow night I don’t expect, so to all of you going over have a great time and see you there!

All four recent signings are ineligible to play for the Falcons in Europe, so Jon Golding and Eni Gesinde come into the pack, whilst Ben Woods and Andy Perry return. Five changes in the backs include internationals Jamie Noon and captain Matthew Burke after they were rested against Harlequins. Anthony Elliott is nowhere to be seen after playing in what was a scratch team last week…am I the only one who is a touch suspicious?

15 Matthew Burke (captain)
14 Tom May
13 Mathew Tait
12 Jamie Noon
11 John Rudd
10 Toby Flood
9 Lee Dickson

1 Jon Golding
2 Matt Thompson
3 Micky Ward
4 Andy Perry
5 Jason Oakes
6 Eni Gesinde
7 Ben Woods
8 Brent Wilson

Replacements:

Robbie Morris
Rob Vickers
Andy Buist
Mike McCarthy
Tim Visser
Hall Charlton
Tom Dillon

To read Mark's excellent introduction to the town of Montauban and its surroundings, click on the link below (as I can't seem to make one work here).

P.S. I am looking into the ticket situation, and will post up here tomorrow if I hear anything - but don't hold your breath.