Biarritz win again

Biarritz beat Agen 15-6, five kicks to two kicks, in an uninspiring match up the road in Agen on Friday night. This is a second win in succession for Biarritz, the bottom side in the Top 14.

It was no advertisement for French rugby - no tries, seven kicks and a fight, after which Wenceslas Lauret of Biarritz was sin-binned.

Conrad Barnard opened the scoring after just two minutes. Dimitri Yachvili equalled the scores and then Marcelo Bosch scored a drop goal as he had done the week before.

The teams went into the break with the Basques leading 6-3.

Yachvili made it 9-3 and then, with eight minutes to play, Barnard made it 9-6 but in the last three minutes Agen were penalised twice and Yachvili deprived the home side of a bonus point.

The win moves Biarritz, for the time being, to third from the bottom.

The scorers:

For Agen:
Pens: Barnard 2

For Biarritz:
Pens: Yachvili 4
DG: Bosch

The teams:

Agen: 15 Silvère Tian, 14 Saimoni Vaka, 13 Manu Ahotaeiloa, 12 Jamie Robinson, 11 Brice Dulin, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Ueleni Fono, 7 Adri Badenhorst, 6 Jean Monribot, 5 Lisiate Fa'aoso, 4 Dewald Senekal, 3 Martin Scelzo, 2 Jalil Narjissi, 1 John Schwalger.
Replacements: 16 Semisi Telefoni, 17 Laurent Cabarry, 18 Damien Lagrange, 19 Marc Giraud, 20 Sylvain Dupuy, 21 Junior Palesasa, 22 Miguel Avramovic, 23 Gert Muller.

Biarritz: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Charles Gimenez, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Ilikena Bolakoro, 10 Marcelo Bosch, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Florian Faure, 7 Benoît Guyot, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Pelu Taele, 4 Jerome Thion, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Arnaud Heguy, 1 Sylvain Marconnet.
Replacements: 16 Romain Terrain, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Raphaël Lakafia, 20 Julien Peyrelongue, 21 Benoît Baby, 22 Dane Haylett Petty, 23 Thomas Lebrequier.

Referee: Romain Poite
Assistant referees: Stéphane Boyer, René Bordeneuve
TMO: Gilles Cogne