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Perpignan have the Pool 2 edge but they cannot afford any complacency when they meet Femi-CZ VEA Rovigo at Stade Aimé Giral on Thursday night. - 15/01/2013 20:40
Perpignan – the 2003 Heineken Cup finalists – have targeted winning the Amlin Challenge Cup as a route into next season’s premier tournament and they have their quarter-final qualification destiny in their own hands.
The French club and Worcester Warriors have had a real battle to claim the one last eight place up for grabs as the group winers with Perpignan’s superior try count in their head-to-head matches potentially crucial.
The clubs are level on 15 points apiece and if two teams in the same Pool finish on the same number of match points then group honours will initially be decided by the ones who have earned the most number of match points from the head-to-head matches.
Worcester and Perpignan have earned five points each from those contests and if they still cannot be separated then the club who has scored the most tries in the two matches go top – and Perpignan are ahead 3-1 on that score.
Perpignan travel to the Urbieta Rugby Sport Centre to take on Bizkaia Gernika aware the Spanish club have done the double over Rovigo but also in the knowledge of their own 90-12 home win against the newcomers with wing Adrien Plante scoring five of their tries.
Match Facts
- In their European debut season, Bizkaia have mustered two victories from four matches so far.
- Perpignan’s record win in this tournament came this season when they hosted Bizkaia. The match ended 90-12.
- Perpignan have won six of their last eight Amlin Challenge Cup matches, with their only defeats coming against English opposition.
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Perpignan’s Adrien Planté is the Amlin Challenge Cup’s top try-scorer this season, the winger has six in four appearances.
Pour sa dernière rencontre européenne de la saison
Perpignan kept their ambitions of an Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final place alive a 50-15 bonus point victory over Spanish part-timers Bizkaia Gernika RT at the Urbieta Rugby Sport Centre.
The Catalans, who reached the 2003 Heineken Cup final, scored eight tries but did not come close to rattling up anything like the 90-12 victory over they registered over the Basques in their home game in Round 2.
This win means Perpignan and England’s Worcester Warriors still have genuine ambitions of qualifying for the tournament’s quarter-finals with the final game of the pool still to play.
Both teams cannot yet be separated on points but only one of them can qualify even if they stay level after the final game of the Pool. The number of tries scored in their head-to-head games will then come into play and Perpignan have a 3-1 try advantage over the Warriors.
Lifeimi Mafi, Perpignan’s former Munster centre, prop Jerome Schuster and wing Armand Batlle all crossed for a brace of tries apiece in the seven-try victory on late Saturday afternoon.
Prop Schuster crossed for the first of his two first-half tries in the third minute but the floodgates never really opened for the Top 14 team against a resilient Bizkaia side.
Wing Batlle and scrum-half Florian Cazenave also crossed for first-half tries to give the Catalans the bonus point and a 33-15 lead at half-time, but they only managed three tries by Mafi, replacement Farid Sid and Batlle again in the second half.
Bizkaia, who have no chance of a quarter-finals place in the tournament, have mustered two victories from their five matches in their debut season of European rugby.
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