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Stade Francais will be defending their 100% record against Italian clubs in European competition when they travel to I Cavalieri Prato. - 17/10/2013 15:41
Stade Francais will be defending their 100% record against Italian clubs in European competition when they travel to I Cavalieri Prato.
The French side have won all 14 of their Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup games against Italian opposition.
Stade produced a strong display on week one of this year’s competition, comfortably dispatching Portugal’s Lusitanos 61-3.
Jérôme Porical was the star of the first round for Stade as he notched up 22 points with two tries and six conversions.
Cavalieri Prato will also have to find a way to stop veteran wing Julien Arias after he extended his remarkable scoring run to 29 tries in all European competitions with a double against the Portuguese.
Prato’s European campaign got off to a tough start last weekend as they went down 60-11 to London Irish.
Irish ran in nine tries but an improved second half display might give Prato a glimmer of hope.
They are without a win in European competition for 18 games, with their last victory coming against Connacht in 2010.
Meanwhile Stade’s record in the pool stages of the Amlin is formidable. They have lost just one of their last 23 pool stage games in the Amlin Challenge Cup – away to Grenoble in January of last season.
Match facts
Jérôme Porical was the top points scorer on the opening weekend, notching up 22 points for Stade Francais with two tries and six conversions.
Since winning their first ERC game against Connacht back in 2010, Prato have lost every single European fixture.
Stade have lost just one of their last 23 pool stage games in the Amlin Challenge Cup and reached the final of last season’s tournament.
Vidéo de l'action ayant conduit à la citation d'Adam Jaulhac - 08/11/2013 13:07
A late Nicolas Garrault try spared Stade Francais’ blushes and denied Cavalieri Prato the biggest victory in their history against last year’s runners-up.
Heavy favourites Stade Francais left it late as they overcame a Cavalieri side that lost Giacomo Bernini to a 23rd minute red card, 16-17. Two late yellow cards meant the Italians played the last 5 minutes with only 12 men on the pitch as their desperate attempts to hold on for a famous victory proved futile.
Going into the game Cavalieri were without a win in 18 European games and in stark contrast their French opponents had lost only one of their last 23 pool games. Yet it was the hosts who led for much of the match.
The Italians took the lead through Toby Browne’s penalty mid-way through the first half shortly after No 8 Giacomo Bernini was sent off. The hosts extended their lead two minutes after the restart as Browne slotted his second penalty of the afternoon.
The 14 men of Cavalieri Prato then dared to dream as Abou Souare ran over and Browne converted to give the underdogs a 13-0 lead. A 58th minute penalty try gave Stade Francais a lifeline and set up an enthralling final 20 minutes.
Cavalieri responded with a drop goal by Dertis Majstorovic but were immediately pegged back by a Porical penalty as the Italians led 16-10 with 10 minutes left on the clock.
The tiring home side lost their discipline and yellow cards in the last 10 minutes for Pino Patelli and Nicolo Tempestini left them with only 12 men as Nicolas Garrault scored the winning try.
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