On Tuesday evening, in front of 13,612 spectators, the Stade Raoul-Barrière saw a fixture it had not hosted in an official match since April 2022. Béziers and Narbonne were separated by a drop goal in the final seconds, 29-27, in a friendly that was friendly in name only. And the fixture list has already set up the sequel.

Four and a half years without a derby

The last time these two met for points was on 1 April 2022, when Béziers won 46-17 in Narbonne. Narbonne were relegated shortly afterwards. Since then, the two clubs have only crossed paths at youth level, in the Crabos.

The return of Racing Club Narbonnais therefore puts back on the calendar a fixture that Pro D2 had been missing. It is scheduled twice: on 25 September at the Stade Raoul-Barrière, in Round 5, then on 23 April in Narbonne.

Of the twenty-six meetings between the two clubs in professional league rugby since 2002, Béziers have won fifteen and Narbonne ten. The scores are rarely close: 46-17, 68-21, 39-10. The recent history of the derby is made of thrashings rather than nail-biting finishes.

A friendly that looked nothing like one

Hence the interest in what happened on Tuesday. The promoted Narbonne side led 0-20 after half an hour, through a Nael Souid try following a series of pick and goes, two Thibault Santoro penalties, then a powerful Caleb Timu try from a kick to the corner. In between, Malakai Fekitoa was shown a yellow card for Béziers.

Béziers closed the gap before the break through Paul Gadea and Cam Dodson (14-20), then went ahead after the restart: a try from wing Enslin Claasen with his first touch, then hooker Yanis Boulassel finishing off a maul (26-20, 47th minute). Narbonne regained the lead with a quarter of an hour left through full-back Clément Clavières, converted by Lubabalo Dobela (26-27, 63rd). The winning drop goal came in the 80th minute from Joseph Laharrague, a 20-year-old fly-half: 29-27.

Two squads you would not recognise

Both clubs spent the summer rebuilding. Béziers announce twenty-two departures and thirteen arrivals, Narbonne twenty-nine departures and twenty-one arrivals. Our data confirm the scale of the turnover at Béziers: of the thirty-seven players registered in the 2026-2027 professional squad, only twenty-three were already there last season.

Gurthrö Steenkamp is also in his first job as director of rugby at Béziers. For both sides, this pre-season derby was mainly a chance to see what two largely new groups can do, sixteen days before the league resumes on 27 August. Narbonne, who had made this derby their only real friendly, will follow up with two joint training sessions, on Friday in Montpellier and next Tuesday in Leucate against USAP.