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Raphael Ibanez and his Bordeaux-Begles team will enjoy home advantage at Stade André Moga when they go head-to-head with French rivals Mont-de-Marsan in their Pool 1 match on Thursday night.
Both clubs are finding life tough in the Top 14 – Bordeaux are in 12th place and Mont de Marsan are last – but this Round 3 contest is sure to be fiercely contested.
Bordeaux won their Round 9 Top 14 clash back in October 17-12, with back row forwards Hugh Chalmers and Matthew Clarkin claiming their tries, but both French clubs are searching for their first Amlin Challenge Cup wins of the campaign.
They have lost to Gloucester Rugby and London Irish with Mont de Marsan on a single losing bonus point and Bordeaux without a point to show for their efforts in a group that looks like a straight Premiership fight for honours and quarter-final qualification.
Match Facts
• Bordeaux-Begles won their last encounter against Mont-de-Marsan (17-12) in Top 14 last month.
• Bordeaux-Begles have lost their last four Amlin Challenge Cup games and their last two at home.
• Mont-de-Marsan are on an 11 game losing streak in this competition, the worst ever run by a French side in the Amlin Challenge Cup. Their last win was on January 20th 2001 against Rugby Parma.
• Mont-de-Marsan have lost their last two games against French teams in this competition, both against Bayonne.
Mont de Marsan won the strictly French affair against Bordeaux-Begles 20-13 at Stade Andre Moga but it was more about domestic bragging rights than really threatening the English domination of Pool 1.
The win took Mont de Marsan to five Pool points but still another five points adrift of leaders London Irish who have played a game less and meet Gloucester in the potentially decisive back-to-back group contests on successive weekends.
However, the win did bring to an end Mont de Marsan’s 11-match tournament losing run – the worst by any French club in the competition – while also gaining a measure of revenge for Bordeaux-Begles’ 17-12 win in the Top 14 last month with Raphael Ibanez’s club now rooted to the foot of the table.
After a cagey opening half hour, in which Bordeaux’s Lachie Munro kicked two penalty goals to one by Alexandre Douvesy, the match exploded into life with three tries in seven minutes.
Scrum half Arnaud Pic and right wing Jordan Beaulavon crossed for Mont de Marsan with Douvesy adding both conversions sandwiching full back Darly Domvo breaching the visiting defence and Munro converting for Bordeaux to trail by just four points at the break.
The next explosion, however, saw the visitors’ Scottish international lock Scott Murray yellow carded and his side reduced to 14 men – although they held out until his return without paying any penalty on the scoreboard.
A deluge of replacements on both sides turned it into a stop-start affair with a second Douvesy penalty goal after 69 minutes the only further bit of scoring action as Mont de Marsan brought an end to their losing tournament run while Bordeaux had to be content with a losing bonus point.
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