Bourgoin v Cardiff - Pool 4

[An Tarbh]

The much villified Bourgoin start their campaign with this home game against Cardiff, there are several absentees - most notably scrum-half Mickaël Forest and prolific try-scoring back three men Antony Forest and Nicolas Carmona, meaning Georgian international centre Irakli Giorgadze is pushed out to the wing. Georgian prop Davit Khinchagishvili lines up in a formidable front-row trio alongside huge hooker Benoit Cabello and Olivier Sourgens, but there is still no sign of the injured French international prop Olivier Milloud.

For Cardiff Rhys Williams misses out and isn't expected to return to action until some time in the new year. The Blues have made eight changes from the team beaten 32-13 by Ulster, Ben Blair and Robert Sidoli having overcome minor knocks to return.

Bourgoin: 15 Florian Denos, 14 David Janin, 13 Guillaume Bousses, 12 Salesi Finau, 11 Irakli Giorgadze, 10 Benjamin Boyet, 9 Mike Prendergast, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Brice Monzeglio, 6 Augusto Petrilli, 5 Damien Fevre, 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Olivier Sourgens, 2 Benoit Cabello, 1 Davit Khinchagishvili.
Replacements: 16 Remy Vigneaux, 17 Pascal Peyron, 18 Bryce Williams, 19 Julien Frier, 20 Mickaël Campeggia, 21 Sebastien Laloo, 22 Matthieu Nicolas.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Chris Czekaj, 13 Tom Shanklin, 12 Marc Stcherbina, 11 Mosese Luvietasau, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Mike Phllips, 8 Mark Lewis, 7 Martyn Williams ©, 6 Scott Morgan, 5 Robert Sidoli, 4 Deiniol Jones, 3 Gary Powell, 2 Rhys Thomas, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Taufaao Filise, 17 Gareth Williams, 18 Bradley Davies, 19 Ben White, 20 Ed Fairhurst, 21 Nick Macleod, 22 Jamie Robinson.

Referee: Chris White

 

[An Tarbh]

Worst match of the weekend so far in Bourgoin, dreadful stuff but great win for Cardiff, was a must win game with Munster and Leicester to come so their chances are well and truly alive, will be interesting to see how they get on at the Millennium Stadium next weekend.

 

[Cymro]

A very poor game in deed.

We dominated and failed to score more. Not being cocky, we were by far the best but we kept on doing silly mistakes!

 

[An Tarbh]

It's not cocky, was turgid stuff alright, ref didn't help, seemed too whistle happy, although Bourgoin were absolute cack, Prendergast had a mare, never looked like giving the backs any ball and the way he stood off the rucks gave such an obvious sign to the Cardiff defence.

Nice bit of opportunism for Cardiff in the buildup to Williams' try though. :lol:

 

[gjohn85]

Cardiff showed they're potential going forward. Just need to finnish off moves.

 

[Cymro]

Thats pretty much it ...need to finish off moves