The Top 14 almost took the entire St Patrick’s Weekend off with just one catch-up match…
Only one game played this week-end between Biarritz and Oyonnax; It was to make up for the ‘loss’ of the 17th week as this game had not been played at the time because of flooding in Biarritz.
For the first time this season, Oyonnax managed to win an away game, 24-22.
Needless to say that this is was a huge blow for Biarritz. While it is mission impossible for Biarritz to remain in the Top 14, its President, the famous Serge Blanco, wanted its players to demonstrate pride on the field. They might have demonstrated it but it was not sufficient.
Oyonnax, who only joined the Top 14 this year, still have a chance to remain in the French top flight. This means that the next five games before the play-offs are going to be critical for the four teams battling against relegation, i.e. Grenoble, Bayonne, Perpignan and Oyonnax.
For those not familiar with Oyonnax, they have the same colour as Toulouse, i.e. Black and Red. It was founded in 1909, and they play in Bourg-en-Bresse (in the Rhône-Alpes region) in their stadium called “Stade Charles Mathon”.
The other news of the weekend is about Johnny Sexton: Despite his strong commitment to learn French, it seems that Johnny has not been able to settle down in Paris, in Racing Métro. It is now an open secret that there are ongoing discussions between the IRFU and Racing, for whom Johnny is under contract till 2015.
Johnny might be back to Ireland …any time soon.