Pro D2 (R10) – Provence top the table, record four-try burst for Charcosset

Eight games, 68 tries and 530 points: played on Thursday and Friday, round 10 was the highest-scoring of the season, just before a two-week break.

Results

Provence take over at the top, still unbeaten

The meeting of the top two turned in the final quarter. Oyonnax led 23-20 in the 66th minute after a moment of brilliance from Alex Newsome, who scored the visitors’ only try, before Provence Rugby struck twice: Arthur Coville in the 70th, then Baptiste Lenoir in the 78th, a try awarded after a long video review. That fourth try, after Mathias Colombet (8th) and prop Lino Julien (44th), earned Provence a bonus point. Beaten by nine points, Oyonnax left with nothing.

Provence have 41 points, three more than Oyonnax. It is a first since the Pro D2 was created in 2000: in 27 seasons, no club had gone through the first ten rounds unbeaten. They have done it with the best defence in the league (200 points conceded), and Friday’s win came against the best attack (381 points scored). Oyonnax were the first of the current top four that Philippe Saint-André’s side had faced this season. They travel to Grenoble after the break.

Charcosset, four tries in fifteen minutes

Brive ran in ten tries against Dax (71-28), the biggest score of the Pro D2 season. Dax actually led 14-10 after 18 minutes. Hooker Yanis Charcosset then scored four times between the 25th and 40th minutes, mostly from driving mauls, and Brive went in 52-14 up at half-time.

Of the twenty four-try hauls in the Pro D2 recorded in our database, the first in 2006, none had come so quickly. The previous record belonged to another hooker, Benjamin Geledan, in 19 minutes in April 2022: they are the only two hookers on the list. With ten tries, Charcosset leads the try-scoring chart ahead of Aurillac’s Ben Houston and Valence Romans’ Dorian Marco Pena (eight each). Young fly-half Leny Broncan scored his first professional try and kicked nine conversions from ten, according to La Montagne. Head coach Grégory Patat told the paper his side must sharpen their defence: in a knockout game, conceding 28 points would make it too hard to win.

Dax had never conceded 70 points in the Pro D2. Their five away games this season have cost them 300 points, 60 a game, without a single bonus point.

Soyaux-Angoulême end Grenoble’s run

Grenoble had won six in a row. At the Stade Chanzy they trailed 20-3 after 32 minutes, following tries from Ugo Pacome and Seydou Diakité and two yellow cards for Corentin Peccaud (17th, 32nd). Paul Berges, who scored 15 points, and Enzo Morand-Bruyat (65th) stretched the lead to 30-10. Grenoble scored twice in the last five minutes, the second by Josh Thompson on the hooter, but lost by six points, one too many for a losing bonus. Soyaux-Angoulême move up to fifth.

Aurillac crush Montauban

Montauban were down to 13 men by the 15th minute, after a yellow card for Vaiolini Ekuasi (11th) and a red for Tyrone Viiga. Aurillac, set on their way by two Jack Strachan drop goals, led only 18-8 at half-time after Johnny Matthews replied for the visitors. Matthews’ yellow card (52nd) opened the floodgates: five tries in 22 minutes, two of them for Angus Staniforth. Ben Houston scored his eighth try of the season.

The 52-point margin is Montauban’s heaviest Pro D2 defeat in our database, ahead of a 56-6 in 2021-22. Since winning in Nevers in round one, they have lost all four away games, conceding 191 points. Head coach Sébastien Tillous-Borde told La Dépêche that 60 points conceded was a lot and that his side should have shown more self-respect. Aurillac go sixth.

Nice snatch it at Narbonne after the hooter

In the battle of the promoted sides, Narbonne led 20-6 in the 47th minute after tries from Daniel Viljoen Jooste and Caleb Timu, and were still 26-19 up in the 73rd minute. Hanru Sirgel had pulled one back (52nd), then Fabio Gonzalez pounced on a failed clearance from his own in-goal by Aphiwe Dyantyi to level (74th). Jules Gimbert kicked the winning penalty after the hooter. It is Nice’s first away win of the season. Narbonne take a losing bonus but stay 14th. Their head coach Jacques Delmas told L’Indépendant there was no anger: his side did not deserve to win.

Colomiers build momentum, Nevers sink further

Colomiers have won two in a row for the first time this season. Against Béziers (53-19), Jules Danglot, Alberto Carmona and hooker Theo Lachaud all scored twice in an eight-try win. Béziers, 15th on 10 points, have lost five straight.

Nevers opened the scoring at Valence Romans through Gabin Rocher, then conceded seven tries (46-12), two of them by Dorian Marco Pena. Nevers’ Ahmed Tidiane Kane was sent off for a strike to the face (48th) and his side finished with 12 men after two yellow cards. No club had lost its first ten Pro D2 games since Lannemezan in 2009-10.

On Thursday, Agen opened the round by beating Biarritz with eight tries (52-17), including first Pro D2 tries for Nail Audoire and Sialevailea Tolofua. Read the match report.

The highest-scoring round of the season

Round 10 produced 66.3 points and 8.5 tries per game, the highest of any round this season, ahead of round 6 (63.0 points). It followed the two tightest rounds (51.8 then 49.3 points). Four teams passed 50 points, and five of the eight winners won by at least 34 points.

Standings after 10 rounds