Tuilagi makes mark for Bayonne

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JAMES HARRINGTON

FRENCH COLUMN

WHILE the focus of French rugby attention is on Stade Ernest Wallon and the return to action of a certain Antoine Dupont, elsewhere another club’s long wait for a star signing is over.

Manu Tuilagi arrived in southwest in July. At the end of August, he suffered a broken hand in a pre-season match for Bayonne against Biarritz.

After five matches on the sidelines, the England international finally made his belated debut yesterday as the Basque club hosted at Estadio Aneota, in San Sebastian. He played 52 minutes on his first outing of the season – and made his mark as the Basque club broke an unlikely duck.

Bayonne’s annual move from their Stade Jean Dauger fortress to the larger venue across the border in northern Spain has, increasingly, divided fans – after two ‘home’ defeats in two previous sold-out matches at the venue, the 39,500-capacity stadium was not at capacity the in-form Rochelais’ visit yesterday

Even so, don’t consider gloating over Top 14 hubris. The occasional move into Spain still makes financial sense for the club. Jean Dauger holds less than 14,500 fans. More than 31,000 were at yesterday’s match. It’s enough of an incentive for the club to consider a second relocation later in the season, probably against .

Club bosses, meanwhile, are also working to add another 1,200 places at their usual home in downtown Bayonne. More importantly, however, the pain in Spain of those previous losses against Pau in 2023 and in 2024 was salved somewhat by yesterday’s thoroughly impressive bonus-point 37-7 victory over Ronan O’Gara’s side.

Suddenly Stade Aneota is starting to look like a home away from home for Bayonne. And Tuilagi is already a crowd favourite.

After last weekend’s late, late defeat at , Toulon manager Pierre Mignoni, who usually prowls the touchline like a bad-tempered wolverine with a toothache, announced that he would watch future games from the stands ‘until further notice’.

So it was against in Creteil yesterday that he sat beside his analysts like a bad-tempered wolverine with a toothache – some things never change – watching as his side failed to trouble the scoreboard for 51 minutes.

In fairness, Racing took 47 minutes to get the first points on the board, via a Nolann Le Garrec penalty – it was the first Top 14 match since 2021 in which the scoreline was 0-0 at halftime. Even the TV director was forced to show player facial highlights, such were the lack of actual ones in the first 40.

There weren’t many more in the second – replacement hooker Jan-nick Tarrit’s 76th-minute maul try won’t make even the most niche of rugby highlight reels. At least, at the end of the season, no one will remember the manner in which Racing won 22-6. The four league points they gained for doing so, on the other hand…

There’s not much fun to be had at Montpellier right now. Heading into just their sixth match of the season, Montpellier had already entered ‘crisis mode’ according to new head coach Joan Cardullo, who was promoted to the top job from the academy in July. In fairness, he’s not wrong. Having escaped last season courtesy of a late penalty in the promotion-relegation play-off at Grenoble, they seem determined to have another go at the end of this campaign.

“After five matches on the sidelines, the former player makes his belated debut”

Their situation will not be helped by ongoing brain injury fears for French international lock Paul Willemse, who suffered another concussion in last week’s loss at Stade Francais, on his return from a mandatory stand-down for an earlier TBI. The 31-year-old will find out this week whether this latest concussion, his sixth in about a year, will prompt an early retirement on medical grounds. Yesterday afternoon’s home match against promoted Vannes – the only side below them in the table before kick-off – was, therefore, an eight pointer. You can imagine the relief, therefore, after Leo Coly’s 74th-minute penalty handed the home side a 26-24 victory that saw them climb, temporarily at least, to 11th in the table.

In truth, the match between Pau and Castres at Stade du Hameau should have been done and dusted at half-time – with the home side 22-0 up, and with a try-scoring bonus in the bag. In the end, however, neither side got a bonus as the visitors somehow dragged themselves back into the game – getting briefly to within losing bonus territory before Thibault Dubagna settled the match from the tee. It finished 33-26.

Another day, another festival of tries at Bordeaux, who ran in another 10 of them en route to beating Perpignan 66-12 in front of a sold-out party crowd at Stade Chaban Delmas. A red card for Apisai Naqalevu six minutes into the second half didn’t help the visitors’ cause. But they were already 31-0 behind when he was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Nicolas Depoortere – who left the pitch on a stretcher following treatment for a head injury.

Concern for Toulouse and France less than a month out from the international series in November, as Romain Ntamack was helped off the pitch with what looked like an achilles injury five minutes from half-time of their bonus-point 48-14 win over Clermont Auvergne.

Even that couldn’t prevent the roar of celebration as Dupont returned to the Stade Ernest Wallon pitch five minutes after the break. And, when he scored a hat-trick in 13 minutes… well, you can probably imagine…

Like his opposite number at Toulouse, Lyon scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud has one eye on France’s November internationals, which kick off against in less than a month. He starts for the home side as they take on Stade Francais in a slightly unusual selection for the match of the sixth weekend of the season. Flyhalf Leo Berdeu, too, will want to continue his eye-catching form to stay in the international mix after a decent couple of outings for Les Bleus in the summer.

At last: Manu Tuilagi impresses as he makes his long-awaited debut for Bayonne against La Rochelle
PICTURE: Getty Images
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