Rugby's Basque Derby

This note about the Miarritze and Baiona rugby team's derby appeared today at Planet Rugby:

Biarritz beat Bayonne in Basque derby
Sunday 02nd December 2007

Biarritz went up the coast and just beat Bayonne in a house-full Basque derby. But the big winners over the weekend in Round 4 of France's Top 14 were probably Clermont Auvergne.

The Auvergnats went east from the Massif Central to Bourgoin-Jallieu, a satellite town southeast of Lyon in the Rhône Valley On Friday Bourgoin, who always have a strong pack of forwards, were second on the Top 14 table, Clermont Auvergne fifth. On Saturday night the Auvergnats had moved up to third, Bourgoin down to 6th.

Stade Français move into second spot after their "lucky" win over Dax at home when lowly Dax scored two tries to an intercept try and destroyed the Parisian scrum.

Montpellier's old-fashioned 9-6 win over Brive has meant that the southern side is now fourth while Brive, rumoured to be about to receive Ben Cohen, are winless and at the bottom of the table.

Bayonne's defeat has meant that they have gone from 1st to 6th and now to 8th in two weeks.

The Catalans have not been having the best of seasons but their away win over Castres may just be the start of fairer fortunes.

Biarritz vs Bayonne, 14-10

Scorers:

For Bayonne:
Try: Heguy
Con: Dourthe
Pen: Dourthe

For Biarritz:
Try: Masi
Pens: Dupuy 2
Drop: Brusque

The teams:

Bayonne: 15 Jean-Baptiste Peyras, 14 Sam Gerber, 13 Richard Dourthe, 12 Henri-Pierre Vermis, 11 Xavier Garbajosa, 10 Manny Edmonds, 9 Julien Tilloles, 8 Dwayne Haare, 7 Louis Massabeau, 6 Jacque Deen, 5 Cédric Bergez, 4 Andrew Springgay, 3 Augustin Lopresti, 2 David Roumieu, 1 Julian Fiorini.
Replacements: 16 Avtandil Kopaliani, 17 Arnaud Heguy, 18 Aretz Iguiniz, 19 Benjamin Lhande, 20 Shaun Hegarty, 21 Nicolas Lafitte, 22 Guillaume Bernad

Biarritz: 15 Nicolas Brusque, 14 Ashwin Willemse, 13 Henry Fa'afili, 12 Andrea Masi, 11 Benjamin Thiéry, 10 Marcelo Bosch, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Samiu Vahafolau, 7 Imanol Harinordoquy, 6 Jacques Cronje, 5 Trevor Hall, 4 Jérôme Thion, 3 Benoît Lecouls, 2 Benoît August, 1 Mosese Moala.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Noirot, 17 Eduard Coetzee, 18, 19 Augustin Creevy, 20, 21, 22.

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