A Violet Victory
J27: Vannes @ Soyaux-Angoulême
The mixture of long shadows on a synthetic pitch, blue skies peeking above the top of the stands, and Jean-Noël Spitzer in a short-sleeved polo shirt all combined to make it clear that Spring has sprung in Charente. Soyaux-Angoulême welcomed Vannes this week, and it’s hot again in the south of France.
There are comparatively few myths from Brittany concerning the warmer months. They are generally a people preoccupied with the colder end of the calendar. Most deal with survival through the ‘black’ months, where frost threatens the fields and the dead get an opportunity to walk among the living. The sanitisation that the Sun brings is more a time of relief and celebration, with no time to spend worrying about writing down the magical imprint that it leaves.
That’s one of the benefits of having a rugby team with frequent sojourns to the south of France on its schedule, as you can experience the real heat of the southern regions every other week instead.
Some veterans in the Vannes squad will make the trip down to Angoulême this week, including half-backs Maxime Lafage, Michael Ruru, and a heap of experience in the forwards with three captains from this season in Joe Edwards, Steeve Blanc-Mappaz, and Francisco Gorrissen.
Notably, Joachim Senga-Kouo, the wunderkind hat-trick man from last week, is on the bench, a classic example of Jean-Noël and the team resisting the flashy pick. Regardless, it was a strong side that tried to extend their lead to a dozen in Stade Chanzy on Friday night against a mid-table Soyaux-Angoulême side.
The Vannes attack started with a clever kick from Ben Stevenson, something he’s been doing all year, which led to a series of penalties inside the five. It wasn’t long before the only way to stop the visitors from scoring from the maul and lineout was for SA to commit penalty after penalty after penalty. Despite the boos from the crowd, the referee sent Léo Labarthe for ten, allowing Vannes to go back to the pick-and-goes, which, even with the one-man advantage they failed to convert.
Five minutes later the home side scored first when a simple change in direction on the play sprung Hubert Texier loose. He battered through a soft missed tackle from Wayan de Benedittis, leading to a two-on-one finished smoothly by scrum-half Baptiste Escoffre. Texier wasn’t done, as five minutes later a pick from the back of the scrum wrong-footed Michael Ruru, leading to a break from his own 22 which took the team coursing into the visitors’ half. They couldn’t quite finish the move and the ball was cleared, though not long after, another attack was almost grounded if Paul Surano hadn’t gotten there first.
The pressure was on with twenty minutes gone and Vannes down by a score. The thrown javelin from SA XV had glanced the visitors’ cheek, and they realised they could bleed.
Stevenson took this as motivation. Taking the ball solo on the counter, he ran at the splintered and surprisingly slow Soyaux line, and with a chip on the outside of his boot, he collected it in five sure steps and split the gap of the two remaining defenders with a sprint to score.
Right away however, the athletic forwards of SAXV were carrying well, hard and bringing the action to the league leaders. This was the first time any team had gone punch for punch with the heavyweights of Vannes for a long, long time.
There was less flair needed for the second try, which saw a trio of forwards combine as Blanc-Mappaz carried into several defenders before El Bibouji drew in three men, leaving Francisco Gorrissen to take the expert supporting line and finish it off. Only for SA to hit back with a jab to the nose, scoring the exact same try at the other end, before Vannes landed a kidney shot to do the same, only to receive one in response two minutes later from SA.
Heading into the round six bell, they had to take the advantage with a big swing, and de Benedittis, often carrying like a big centre with his long legs and low socks, managed to finish in the corner. Headed into the second half the breathless bout was 19-26.
It would be up to Soyaux-Angoulême to decide whether or not this lead would be insurmountable in the second half. It seemed like nature was in their favour as the blue sky turned purple with the setting sun, perhaps acting as a supernatural signal that they could maintain their momentum if they kept up the spirited display.
Certainly the heat seemed to photosynthesise Hayam El Bibouji, as the Pau native found some fantastic flair, slipping an inside ball out of the back of his hand, and making bruising runs that broke through the SA XV barriers. Off the back of this platform, the backs found themselves making big gains from powerful straight running and crisp, organised lines.
Soyaux-Angoulême were bowing but not breaking, keeping their discipline and keeping Vannes out of the endzone. They also made some enormous tackles, including one mismatched hit that resulted in Bouthier being hit so hard into the synthetic turf by George Tilsley that he might have tasted actual earth. This defence allowed them to get back into it with a penalty, as Vannes failed to connect on their attacks, with multiple moves being sent backwards from spillages.
Which meant that for the first time in a long time, Vannes were defending a one score lead with less than ten minutes to go, as a roaring home crowd added whistles and cheers to the pressure. Soon the set piece started to suffer, as the scrum was sent backwards and successive penalties blew up play.
The last five minutes were just a series of goal-line stands from Vannes. With the Soyaux-Angoulême players clapping their hands and begging for quick ball, Vannes held them back, held them up, then got straight back to their feet to start the process again. For a Vannes team that has been mostly taking a victory lap for the last quarter of their games, needing the fitness and concentration to go a full 80 minutes was a rarity. It therefore wasn’t such a surprise when 23-year-old hooker Mamoudou Meïté barrelled over for the final play. The final score: 29-26.
“I’d rather it end here than later,” Jean-Noël Spitzer said afterwards about their winning streak. “We came up against a really generous opponent in a stadium where the crowd really got behind them. We had chances, but we finished them very poorly. We made a lot of mistakes, and if we claim to be a team of a certain caliber, we shouldn’t be making those kinds of errors.”
Vannes’ unbeaten run of eleven games is over, which is what happens when you are sloppy against a determined team in a hostile environment. Perhaps it’s a blessing, as going into the play-offs with the millstone of an undefeated streak around your neck makes for harder work. Now they just have to worry about keeping healthy and winning the first semi-final in a few weeks instead.
There are two game weeks left before that though, with the final home game of the season up next against Aurillac.