The Stade Niçois failed to raise the bar on the field of Dax. The Niçois lost 22-19 to the Dacquois and only bring back a small defensive bonus point.
After their defeat at home last week against the bottom-ranked Valence-Romans, Alexandre Compan, the Niçois coach, wanted a reaction from his players for the trip to Dax. From the first few minutes of play, the Niçois took control of the game and forced two Dacquois penalties. Tanguy Menoret did not hesitate and converted these two kicks to give the visitors a six-point lead.
But against the run of play, Dax, on their first play phase in the Niçois half, scored the first try of the match through their fullback, Maxime Oltman. After 10 minutes of play, the score is 5-6.
The Niçois dominated in all areas of the game but lacked efficiency and dropped a lot of balls. In their first two scrums, Nice was disrupted and penalized twice. Despite several phases of play in the Dacquois’ 22-meter area, the Niçois were caught off guard on a swift counterattack and conceded an 80-meter try. Completely against the run of play, Dax punished the visitors twice for their lack of realism and pulled ahead.
At halftime, Dax is ahead, and Nice can regret their handling errors and lack of efficiency near the line. The score is 15-9.
A Reaction Too Late
The second half started with a penalty converted by Tanguy Menoret, who had a 100% kick rate tonight. But indiscipline caught up with the Niçois again. Courtade committed a foul and received the Niçois’ second yellow card of the match. The visitors were immediately punished and conceded Dax’s third try. The hosts then led 22-12 after the conversion, requiring two scores to at least equalize.
Despite their efforts and good contributions from the bench, the Niçois try scored by Freytes was not enough. As they pushed to come back in the final seconds, a Niçois knock-on dashed their hopes and sealed the score. Mirroring their game, their lack of precision let them down. Dominating in the rucks and lineouts, it was in the passing and scrums where the evening was more challenging.
Stade Niçois is therefore content with a defensive bonus point and currently sits at the 15th and second-to-last place in the Pro D2 championship. Halloween turned into a curse for the Niçois, who will have a tough task next week as they travel to face the league leaders, Montauban.
