Mum, Dad and Match 2

Last week was spent in preparation for the match on Sunday and also in looking forward to the visit of Mum and Dad on Friday. Tension grew in the flat – nothing that anyone who’s shared a flat won’t have gone through – and it looks like that’s just about subsided. On Saturday we went to Versailles, much to the despair of my French teacher, though it was quite impressive and a good day out. Though whose idea it was to place modern Japanese Digimon/Pokemon style art installations in the bedrooms of Louis XIV, Marie-Antionette and the Hall of Mirrors is beyond me. Ridicule. That night we ate in a local restaurant where some of the professionals were also enjoying a beer with their families after their easy win. I pointed out the South African table, with Francois Steyn etc and the English/Australian/Fijian table to Mum and Dad, though Dad was too cool to look round. Mum was awfully impressed that one big prop knew me well enough to shake my hand and chat about their game earlier in the day.

The match versus Dijon Challonnais was a scrappy affair which we won 22-0. This is a scoreline that never produces exciting matches. They weren’t good enough to score any points but we weren’t quite good enough on the day to put 40 past them like we should have. I set up one try with a nice chest-style miss pass and then didn’t do much else. But we eventually got the bonus point which is important. Mum and Dad managed to make some chat to some fellow parents, mainly due to some good English being spoken I believe. Here is how the table stands. Not surprisingly, Clermont Auvergne are up there setting the pace. However, what is surprising is Stade Francais having lost two early fixtures, though one was to Clermont. Next week we traverse Paris to play AC Bobigny, whose previous results don’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of the ciel et blanc.

CLUB	PTS	J	G	N	P	GA	PB	NEI	NF
1	LYON OL U	10	2	2	0	0	44	2	0	0
2	A S MONTFERRANDAISE	9	2	2	0	0	51	1	0	0
2	MASSY PUC	9	2	2	0	0	35	1	0	0
2	ASSOCIATION RACING METRO 92	9	2	2	0	0	27	1	0	0
2	C S BOURGOIN JALLIEU	9	2	2	0	0	46	1	0	0
6	U S OYONNAX	1	2	0	0	2	-37	1	0	0
6	STADE FRANCAIS PARIS	1	2	0	0	2	-22	1	0	0
6	ABCD XV	1	2	0	0	2	-24	1	0	0
9	A C BOBIGNY 93 RUGBY	0	2	0	0	2	-70	0	0	0
9	U S BRESSANE	0	2	0	0	2	-50	0	0	0