Newcastle consolidated their position at the top of Pool 1 with a narrow victory over Dragons while Oyonnax, Edinburgh and Bordeaux Bègles also won.
Oyonnax 27-20 Worcester
Stade Charles Mathon
Oyonnax scored three tries to beat Worcester 27-20 in the Challenge Cup.
Three defeats and no points from Oyonnax's Challenge Cup games this year left the hosts bottom, and last time out they fell to defeat against Worcester. But against the same opposition, they put in a much improved display.
An early missed penalty from Julien Audy was the biggest excitement of the first 10 minutes, and Sam Olver was able to kick Warriors ahead moments later. But they were the only points Worcester would get in the first 40 as Oyonnax put in a dominant showing. Audy levelled with a kick at the posts, and Worcester lost Joe Taufete'e to the sin bin as the hosts upped the tempo.
Vincent Lasmarrigues grabbed the first try out wide, Worcester made to pay for being a man down. And it turned into an increased lead before the break. The second try of the night came when Audy's chip and chase fortuitously bounced over the head of Max Stelling, with the Oyonnax kicker finishing the move off. Conversion followed, as did another penalty for a 20-3 lead at half-time.
Olver got his second three pointer of the night five minutes into the second half, Worcester looking to quickly narrow the deficit. The Worcester man was playing a solo effort in his attempts to get Warriors back in the game, proved when he added their first try. He dummied a pass to find the line, converting to narrow the score. But Oyonnax hit back, Valentin Ursache bouncing his way through and Audy converting to restore a healthy 27-13 lead.
Worcester were given hope late on, with their second try coming with 10 minutes to go. A superb foray forward from Alafoti Fa'osiliva produced their second try, Olver narrowing to them within a converted try of Oyonnax's 27 points. It was too little too late though, with the hosts able to see out the 27-20 win.
The scorers:
For Oyonnax:
Tries: Lasmarrigues, Audy, Ursache
Cons: Audy 3
Pens: Audy 2
For Worcester:
Tries: Olver, Fa'osiliva
Cons: Olver 2
Pens: Olver 2
Yellow Card: Taufete'e
Oyonnax: 15 Ulupano Seuteni, 14 Silvere Tian, 13 Vincent Lasmarrigues, 12 Maxime Veau, 11 Tim Giresse, 10 Anthony Fuertes, 9 Julien Audy, 8 Thibault Tauleigne, 7 Bilel Taieb, 6 Shay Kerry, 5 Simon Christian Njewel, 4 Geoffrey Fabbri, 3 Irakli Mirtskhulava, 2 Hika Elliot, 1 Khatchik Vartanov
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Geledan, 17 Kevin Buys, 18 Thomas Laclayat, 19 Valentin Ursache, 20 Luc Barba, 21 James Hall, 22 Bjorn Basson, 23 Maxime Fucina
Worcester: 15 Ben Howard, 14 Tom Howe, 13 Chris Pennell, 12 Max Stelling, 11 Perry Humphreys, 10 Sam Olver, 9 Michael Dowsett, 8 David Denton, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Huw Taylor, 5 Darren Barry, 4 Pierce Phillips, 3 Simon Kerrod, 2 Joe Taufete'e, 1 Ryan Bower (c)
Replacements: 16 Kurt Haupt, 17 Gareth Milasinovich, 18 Biyi Alo, 19 Alafoti Fa'osiliva, 20 Matti Williams, 21 Luke Baldwin, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Josh Adams
Referee: Vlad Iordachescu (Rom)
Assistant referees: Alexandru Ionescu (Rom), Madalin Girbau (Rom)
Dragons 25-27 Newcastle
Rodney Parade
Newcastle edged out Dragons at Rodney Parade in a hard fought 27-25 win.
It was a frantic first half at Rodney Parade, and it took just 10 minutes for Falcons to grab the opening try. A wide pass from Joel Hodgson was seized upon eventually by Adam Radwan, who was able to safely step over the line and provide Hodgson with an easy two pointer.
One try swiftly became two for the visitors, Zach Kibirige going 40 metres downfield to add to the early woes for Dragons. But their half was to improve from the 14 point deficit they faced after just 12 minutes. A maul in the corner saw Elliot Dee at the heart of it to ground over the line, and he levelled the scores with his second try soon after, coming from a catch and drive inside the corner.
It was an all action first 20 minutes, and Gavin Henson kicked Dragons into their first lead, only for Hodgson to immediately drag his side back onto level terms. Gary Graham then restored the Newcastle lead, supporting the attack and going over in the centre, with Hodgson adding two for a 24-17 lead at the break.
The Welsh side narrowed that gap down to just a couple of points with their third try of the night after half-time. A maul in the corner had Falcons panicking, and Ashton Hewitt found space on the right hand side to ground. Henson failed to level the scores with a conversion attempt though, Newcastle holding a slender 24-22 lead.
But the Dragons man kicked the hosts into a single point lead with 20 minutes left on the clock, a nervy ending ahead for both sides. Hodgson was next to step up, and a penalty meant Falcons took back control in a topsy-turvy final spell.
Dragons threw everything at Newcastle in the final exchanges but ultimately fell just a couple of points short as Falcons sealed a thrilling 27-25 win.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Tries: Dee 2, Hewitt
Cons: Henson 2
Pens: Henson 2
For Newcastle:
Tries: Radwan, Kibirige, Graham
Cons: Hodgson 3
Pens: Hodgson
Dragons: 15 Hallam Amos, 14 Jared Rosser, 13 Adam Warren, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Ashton Hewitt, 10 Gavin Henson, 9 Dan Babos, 8 James Benjamin, 7 Ben Roach, 6 Aaron Wainwright, 5 Cory Hill, 4 Joe Davies, 3 Lloyd Fairbrother, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Sam Hobbs
Replacements: 16 Liam Belcher, 17 Gerard Ellis, 18 Tom Davies, 19 Rynard Landman, 20 James Sheekey, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Arwel Robson, 23 Pat Howard
Newcastle: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Zach Kibirige, 13 Tom Penny, 12 Josh Matavesi, 11 Adam Radwan, 10 Joel Hodgson, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Ryan Burrows, 7 Gary Graham, 6 Mark Wilson, 5 Sean Robinson, 4 Will Witty, 3 Scott Wilson, 2 Ben Sowrey, 1 Sam Lockwood
Replacements: 16 Jamie Blamire, 17 Rob Vickers, 18 Trevor Davison, 19 Glen Young, 20 Harrison Orr, 21 Micky Young, 22 Craig Willis, 23 Charlie Wilson
Referee: Mike Adamson (Sco)
Assistant referees: Ben Blain (Sco), Finlay Brown (Sco)
Edinburgh 78-0 Krasny Yar
Murrayfield
12 tries sealed an incredible 78-0 win for Edinburgh against Krasny Yar.
With three wins from three, Edinburgh always looked likely to stretch that run at home to Krasny Yar – nobody would have expected them to dismantle their opposition quite so swiftly however.
It was the perfect home debut for Duhan van der Merwe as he had to wait barely two minutes before going in underneath the posts. It was an early warning for the Russians, and their night got much, much worse. Chris Dean had all the freedom in the world to get the second try, going in unchallenged as he cut a line inside.
A minute later, Lewis Carmichael was in the driving seat to dive over in the corner, Blair Kinghorn making it a 21-0 lead.
Before the 20 minute mark, try four had arrived. Jamie Ritchie sprinted home for the dominant hosts, Krasny Yar already thinking about the plane journey home. 21 minutes saw try five, Kinghorn added to his conversions with a try of his own, rounding the final defender and converting his own effort.
And things got even worse for Krasny Yar, with Victor Arhip shown a yellow in the middle of the madness.
The sixth try arrived as Sean Kennedy was the recipient of a Kinghorn pass, and before half-time number seven was in the bag when Neil Cochrane threw a dummy the way of the Krasny Yar backline to go through. 47-0 at the break was the healthy lead Edinburgh had to defend for the final 40.
It took only a minute of the restart for Edinburgh to break the fifty point mark, with Darcy Graham getting on the end of a kick to dive over, Krasny Yar still with 39 minutes to endure.
They held out for sixteen minutes before the ninth try arrived. Damien Hoyland became the ninth different scorer when he had a lucky bounce from a Sam Hidalgo-Clyne kick, 57-0 the advantage.
It was only a matter of time before the try tally took to double figures, and that's what happened as Junior Rasolea finished off a scrum move, Hidalgo-Clyne making it 64-0.
Having conceded 10 tries in the reverse fixture, Klasny Yar were hoping not to go one worse this time around, but their task wasn't helped when Valeriy Tsnobiladze saw yellow for the final minutes. And barely a breath later, try 11 came from Cameron Fenton as he powered through.
The man who started the try scoring finished it, van der Merwe adding his second of the night following another kick from Hidalgo-Clyne, finishing off a brutal 78-0 demolition.
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Van Der Merwe 2, Dean, Carmichael, Ritchie, Kinghorn, Kennedy, Cochrane, Graham, Rasolea, Fenton
Cons: Kinghorn 6, Hidalgo-Clyne 3
For Krasny Yar:
Yellow Cards: Arhip, Tsnobiladze
Edinburgh: 15 Darcy Graham, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 James Johnstone, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Jaco van der Walt, 9 Sean Kennedy, 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Jamie Ritchie, 6 Magnus Bradbury, 5 Lewis Carmichael, 4 Fraser McKenzie, 3 Murray McCallum, 2 Neil Cochrane, 1 Rory Sutherland
Replacements: 16 Cameron Fenton, 17 Kevin Bryce, 18 Matt Shields, 19 Viliame Mata, 20 Luke Crosbie, 21 Nathan Fowles, 22 Blair Kinghorn, 23 Junior Rasolea
Krasny Yar: 15 Vas Artemyev, 14 Sunia Latu, 13 Giorgi Pruidze, 12 Kirill Golosnitskii, 11 Evgenii Kolomiitcev, 10 Lasha Malaguradze, 9 Vasilii Dorofeev, 8 Oleg Prepelitse, 7 Viktor Arhip, 6 Viktor Gresev, 5 Andrei Garbuzov, 4 Andrei Mahu, 3 Azamat Bitiev, 2 Andrei Kondakov, 1 Sione Fukofuka
Replacements: 16 Valeriy Tsnobiladze, 17 Grigory Tsnobiladze, 18 Mikheil Tsiklauri, 19 Aleksandr Khudiakov, 20 Egor Zykov, 21 Anton Riabov, 22 Igor Galinovskiy, 23 Fangatapu Apikotoa
Referee: David Wilkinson (Ire)
Assistant referees: Kieran Barry (Ire), Oisin Quinn (Ire)
Bordeaux Bègles 36-27 Enisei-STM
Stade Chaban-Delmas
Bordeaux held off a late fightback to seal a 36-27 win at Stade Chaban-Delmas against Enisei-STM.
In this battle of the two sides currently occupying third and fourth in Pool 1, it only took eight minutes for Bordeaux to strike the opening points. They came from Geoffrey Cros, getting on a rebound and flying through the posts, Ben Volavola making it a seven point advantage in the early exchanges.
Iurii Kushnarev cut that lead to four with his first penalty of the evening, and he followed that with another successful kick from 50 metres to put the Russians just a single point behind. Iban Etcheverry restored a decent gap with the hosts second try of the night on 20 minutes, Volavola building that lead back up to eight points.
And Julian Rey was able to increase that lead further with a third try, but the visitors got their first try before half-time. Evgeny Nepeivoda went through, Kushnarev adding two as they went into half-time 21-13 behind.
Kitione Kamikamica added to that lead into the second half, sealing the bonus point. But Enisei-STM were putting up a battle and reduced the lead down to six points with their second try of the night.
Anton Rudoi had a converted try that got the visitors right back into the game, only for Bordeaux to restore the earlier advantage when Jules Gimbert got their fifth of the night.
With four minutes to go, the Bordeaux lead was reduced to just four when replacement Vladimir Podrezov got the third try for the Russian side. But Florian Dufour settled nerves in the final moments as he sealed the game with a late try, 36-27 the result.
The scorers:
For Bordeaux Bègles:
Tries: Cros, Etcheverry, Rey, Kamikamica, Gimbert, Dufour
Cons: Volavola 3
For Enisei-STM:
Tries: Nepeivoda, Rudoi, Podrezov
Cons: Kushnarev 3
Pens: Kushnarev 2
Bordeaux Bègles: 15 Geoffrey Cros, 14 Iban Etcheverry, 13 Pablo Uberti, 12 Julien Rey, 11 Blair Connor, 10 Ben Volavola, 9 Gauthier Doubrere, 8 Jandré Marais, 7 Kitione Kamikamica, 6 Cameron Woki, 5 Pierre Gayraud, 4 Cyril Cazeaux, 3 Marc Clerc, 2 Ole Avei, 1 Ravai Kovekalou
Replacements: 16 Florian Dufour, 17 Thierry Paiva, 18 Lasha Tabidze, 19 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 20 Johan Aliouat, 21 Jules Gimbert, 22 Romain Lonca, 23 Metuisela Talebulamaijaina
Enisei-STM: 15 Aleksandr Budychenko, 14 Richard Kingi, 13 David Kacharava, 12 Dmitriy Simonov, 11 Evgeny Nepeivoda, 10 Iurii Kushnarev, 9 Alexey Shcherban, 8 Anton Rudoi, 7 Anton Sychev, 6 Mikheil Gachechiladze, 5 Evgeny Elgin, 4 Uldis Saulite, 3 Innokentiy Zykov, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Valery Morozov
Replacements: 16 Shamil Magomedov, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Vladimir Podrezov, 19 Vitalii Orlov, 20 Aleksei Mikhaltsov, 21 Konstantin Uzunov, 22 Federico Giliberti, 23 Viacheslav Krasylnyk
Referee: Joy Neville (Ire)
Assistant referees: Stuart Gaffikin (Ire), Shane Kierans (Ire)
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