Latest
Overview
Season so far
Tournament record
Agen and Buchurest Wolves are both desperate to claim victory at Stade Alfred-Armandie – though for very different reasons.
These teams have experienced vastly contrasting fortunes of late though victory is of equal importance.
Buchurest snatched a late victory in Romania last week over Agen thanks to Florin Vlaicu's last-minute penalty.
That victory was the club's most significant result since beating Montauban exactly five years before and also secured a second win of the campaign. Another success would signal their best ever showing in Europe.
Agen's slim hopes of progressing were ended in Romania but are now under real pressure to produce a result for their supporters.
The former Challenge Cup finalists are in the midst of a slump having now won just one of their last eight games in all competitions after resting several leading players last week.
Match Facts
• Bucharest Wolves’ Florin Vlaicu, the team’s top points scorer in this tournament, needs six points to reach 200 points in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
• Agen have lost six of their last eight Amlin Challenge Cup matches.
• Bucharest secured back-to-back victories for the first time in their tournament history against Cammi Rugby Calvisano and Agen.
• Agen have conceded a competition low 9.5 turnovers per game so far in 2012/13.
Agen bounced back from last week’s shock defeat to Bucharest Wolves with a comfortable win over the same opposition in Round 4.
The French outfit returned from Romania with just a losing bonus point last weekend but they were gained revenge with a 39-9 success at the Stade Armandie this time around.
Tries from Marc Barthomeuf, Uelenitoni Fono, Belisario Agulla, Benjamin Petre and Mathieu Lamoulie secured a bonus-point triumph that saw the hosts move three points above their opponents in the Pool 4 table.
Hooker Barthomeuf gave Agen a dream start by crossing for the game’s opening score with just five minutes played but Bucharest were competitive for far longer than the scoreline suggests.
With Lamoulie and Bucharest’s hero from last week Florin Vlaicu exchanging a brace of penalties, Agen led by just a single score at the break.
And they cut that gap to four points at 13-9 two minutes into the second period despite the fact that Alexandru Mitu had been sinbinned eight minutes before the interval.
But any prospect of a repeat of last week’s result was soundly dismissed when Agen touched down for four tries in the space of 20 second-half minutes.
No8 Fono began the process a minute after Eugen Capatana had become the second Wolves player to see yellow and wing Agulla effectively ended the game as a contest when he followed suit after 64 minutes.
Agen’s 27-9 lead became 32-9 five minutes later through centre Petre, with Lamoulie completing the score with four minutes left for a personal haul of 19 points.
Victory means Agen remain in the hunt for a quarter-final place, although qualification is still very much in the hands of group leaders Bath.
Agen travel to The Rec in Round 5 knowing victory will see their knockout hopes stay intact ahead of their final pool match at home to strugglers Cammi Rugby Calvisano.
LIVE - TEST - Commentary