For the late 12th day of the championship, postponed because of bad weather at the end of December, FCG hosted Aix at the Stade des Alpes.
The Aixois had lined up the "big team" against Grenoble : Bézy, Massip, Le Devedec, Radosavljevic, among others. And for good reason, from the beginning of the match, Provence Rugby held the ball, and with an important possession, managed to put the FCG in difficulty. Grenoble bends, but doesn't give in. Realistic and lucid and despite too few forays into the Aix camp, Corentin Glénat found the net twice (4th, 18th), to allow his team to lead 6-0.
It's really a match beforehand and most of the playing time takes place outside the 40m of each team. Pushed to a foul, Grenoble concedes a penalty and Aix comes back to 6-3. Under pressure and good defenders against the Provençal assaults, Grenoble found itself regularly, between the 30th and 37th, to defend in its 22m.
It was without counting a very nice action in the 40th minute, with a breakthrough by Tupuola, relayed by Deon Fourie, then a very nice chistera by Séguret for Glénat who will score under the poles. At the break, Grenoble leads 13-6.
At the restart, FCG is not there: penalised 3x in less than 2min30, rough and imprecise, Grenoble is scared and only owes its salvation to Florent Massip, fortunately on a bad day and who missed a few kicks. At the 47th minute, Zambelli even flattened a try to allow Aix to lead 14-13. In the 50th minute, Leva Fifita was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle while Massip widened the gap 13-17. Following a touchdown found 5m from the line and a solid ball, Deon Fourie broke out of the maul and scored a powerful corner try to allow FCG to lead 18-17. Florent Massip then allowed them to come back to the front in this highly suspenseful forward match (71st, 18-20) but Selponi in turn managed a penalty for Grenoble and the Isèrois came back to the front (73rd, 21-20).
We'll leave it at that and FCG is very scared against a beautiful team from Provence Rugby. Thanks to this short victory, FCG came 7th in the ProD2 championship.
Auteur : FCG Rugby