One week after their defeat in Périgueux, the Nice team is traveling once again, this time to Vienne in Isère. The red and black secured their first victory of the season (3-25).
The Stade Niçois aimed to bounce back after their slip-up last week on the pitch of the newly promoted Périgueux, during the first day of this new Nationale season. Tonight, the Nice team played the second of their five consecutive away games. This match saw them face off against another newly promoted team, CS Vienne Rugby. The sky and white team also lost their first match against Blagnac (16-53).
A calm first half
For this match, Axel Compan, the head coach, made six changes in his starting fifteen. The half-backs were completely renewed. Mattéo Jeune-Joly and Mathis Viard took their places on the bench. They were replaced by Jules Solinas and Romain Riguet at the opening. Among the other changes, Julien Beaufils (prop), Luvoyo Pupuma (prop), Yann Tivoli (second row), and Bastien Berenguel (flanker) were included in the team for the first time this season in the championship.
The match kicked off at 7 p.m. Vienne quickly found themselves down to fourteen players for ten minutes following a yellow card in the 12th minute. Le Stade Niçois finally opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a penalty from Pierre Le Huby (0-3). This lead was short-lived, as the blue and white team equalized five minutes later (3-3). The Nice team regained the lead just before the break with another penalty from Pierre Le Huby (3-6).
A second half dominated by Stade Niçois
The second period began like the first, with great intentions but no points scored in play for the Nice team. It was finally the Nice winger Andrzej Charlat who scored the first try of the game at the 60th minute (3-10), his second in two matches. The try was converted by Pierre Le Huby, who was having a successful day with his kicking (3-13). The red and black team took a ten-point lead with twenty minutes remaining in the match.
But Stade Niçois didn’t stop there. Charlat scored another try, his second of the match, in the 74th minute. The conversion was made by Mathis Viard (3-20). And a few minutes before the end of the match, the Nice club secured the offensive bonus point thanks to a try from the flanker Ramiha Smiler in the 79th minute (3-25). The conversion missed, and that was the end of the match.
After a complicated first half, the Nice team secured their first victory of the season on Vienne’s field (3-25), with the added bonus of an offensive bonus point. The next match for Stade Niçois is on Saturday, September 9 at 7:30 p.m. on the pitch of Tarbes.
