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The return of the Pro D2 Thursday Night Lights takes us to the Stade Armandie, where Agen host Colomiers.
Colomiers come into this one buoyed by a remarkable home victory last week against an ever-improving Oyonnax side. In spite of leading 23–6 at half-time, Oyonnax conspired to not score a single further point in the game, and the Toulouse-based side ran in three unanswered tries after the 70th minute to burgle an encounter that they led for a grand total of three minutes. For Colomiers, it was their second one-point victory in the space of seven days, having squeaked past Aurillac in biblical conditions at the Stade Jean Alric a week earlier.
It leaves the league’s best away side in third place, tucked a place behind Provence in spite of having one more win and no doubt fancying their chances to extend their already outstanding record of five away wins out of eight.
The Stade Armandie may no longer be the fortress of the great Agen sides of yesteryear, but following a succession of difficult seasons, the home side have much more to be content with this term. They have only been beaten once at home this season – that against the same Oyonnax side who should have turned over Colomiers last week – and have found plenty of backline fluency to complement graft up front.
The attack has been largely shaped by the impressive English halfback pairing of Jack Maunder and Craig Willis, and given much-needed punch in the midfield by Kolinio Romoka, who has been one of the standout centres in the league this season. All three start here, and out wide, former Perpignan and Racing 92 man Louis Dupichot and Portugal’s Lucas Martins represent a pair of high-quality wingers.
In the pack, Alex Burin at tighthead has been outstanding, and has been heavily linked with a number of Top 14 clubs for next season. It was only two seasons ago, at the same time of year, that Burin was named in Fabien Galthié’s Six Nations squad whilst still in Pro D2. Given the national team’s noted issues at tighthead, international caps are surely in Burin’s future. Santi Socino has been superb at hooker, and young loosehead Luca Tabarot is preferred to start over usual first choice Florent Guion, who is on the bench.
For Colomiers, the playmaking spine is unchanged, with halfbacks Ugo Ségéula and Valentin Delpy starting and Alexandre Borie at fullback, but it’s all change in the midfield and outside backs. Ray Nu’u, who may stake a claim to the player of the season so far, misses out, as do Rodrigo Marta and Vincent Pinto. Into the centres come Martin Dulon and Baptiste Serrano, the latter of whom has started four of the five games Colomiers have won away from home this year, whilst Tongan international Anzelo Tuitavuki starts on the wing.
Up front, Colomiers’ standout weapon looks to be its back row. In Nicholas Martins, Caleb Timu and Luka Plataret, there can be few better loose forward sets in the league when all are on song. They have occasionally struggled at the set piece against the bigger packs in the league, and Pierre-Emmanuel Pacheco has a big task up against Burin on his first start of the season.
On the bench is Pacheco’s former France U20s teammate Max Auriac, back after nine months out with injury, as is Thomas Adelaide, linked with La Rochelle and who was at the centre of a salty press release from his now former parent club Toulon in the week.
In spite of sitting seventh in the league and only two points off the barrage places, there is a question mark as to whether Agen are a genuine contender for the Top 6 and possibly beyond, largely driven by their lack of success away from home. A win here won’t polish their patchy away record, but it is undoubtedly a big opportunity against a Colomiers side who have won more than they’ve lost, bucking the age-old French rugby trope. For Colomiers, a sixth away win here might well be their most impressive to date.
Best of the Rest
All eyes will be on the late Friday night kick-off, with Grenoble hosting league leaders Vannes. Few would have picked that there would be a full ten spots between the two league juggernauts at this stage of the season, but there are a whopping 28 points between two teams who contested a Pro D2 semi-final less than two years ago. The home side, who announced the signing of highly rated Welsh second row James Fender this week, will be hoping fellow Welshman Sam Davies can lift them out of their current malaise on his full return from injury.
Elsewhere, Biarritz travel to Dax looking to avenge their home defeat in the Basque–Landes derby earlier this season. Both sides have seven wins to their name, but sit nine points apart owing to Dax’s widely reported points deduction, a final ruling on which is set to be confirmed this month
Pro D2 continues this Thursday (22nd January) with Agen v Colomiers, available to UK & Ireland viewers for free via FRUK Rugby on YouTube.