The big coup!

The Stade des Alpes had dressed up for Thursday evening's match between FCG and Oyonnax, the last match of the first leg of the Pro D2 first leg. The fans had a good feeling about it, as they were numerous to fill the bays of the Grenoble stadium (11,335 spectators).

The match began with a real opposition of style, as expected by Stéphane Glas: Grenoble hold the ball, try to set the pace, but the Oyomen are particularly efficient on the ground and recover many penalties at the beginning of the game. On one of them, Le Bouhris opened the scoring (0-3, 9').

The "Rouge & Bleu" dominated the game and thought they had scored through Fabien Alexandre, but Nathanël Hulleu had committed a forward pass just beforehand. Moments later, in a five-man scrum, Pablo Uberti and then Bastien Guillemin came close to scoring, before the Grenoble side lost the ball. It was thought that this possession would be useless, but the ball was cleared by the Haut-Bugey players on Raymond Rhule. The Grenoble fullback started to throw the ball back, and the ball fell to Nathanaël Hulleu, who finally scored Grenoble's first try of the match (7-3, 34').

After the changing rooms, the Isèrois are quickly back in the 22 opponents. Despite the demands of the staff, the players chose several times to go out on the sidelines rather than attempt penalties. Leva Fifita, in force, scored the second try of the match (14-3, 47').  On the next action, the referee denied FCG another try, deeming that Bastien Guillemin had crawled before flattening.

After a penalty from le Bouhris (14-6, 53'), the Grenoble side suffered a little more. They nevertheless managed to secure Ursache's temporary expulsion following a dangerous clearance of the Romanian second line. Unfortunately, the Oyonnaxians managed to negotiate their numerical superiority perfectly, coming back to within one point thanks to a try from Giresse, who had been transformed by his opener (14-13, 67').

So we're expecting an explosive final between the two teams. Oyonnax are trying to play a little bit more, but it's the Grenoble players who are the strongest in this game. They get several penalties under the opposing posts, but each time they choose the scrum, rather than scratch 3 points. The Isèrois then took advantage of a new numerical superiority to score a third try, again in force, by Leva Fifita (21-13, 74').

Better, at the end of a crazy sequence, Raymond Rhule grips the Oyonnaxian defence and serves Bastien Guillemin. The FCG winger scored Grenoble's fourth try of the game, the bonus try (28-13, 77').

Thanks to this enhanced victory, FCG take the lead of the championship alone, while waiting for the result of Perpignan against Montauban. The "Rouge & Bleu" signed a seventh victory at the Stade des Alpes, the sixth with a bonus! After the truce, they will go to Aurillac for the beginning of the second half of the regular phase. But, until then, they will spend the end of the year celebrations at the head of the Pro D2.