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Pro D2 Thursday Night Lights head to the Jura Mountains of the Ain department, and French rugby’s highest stadium, where Oyonnax host league front runners Vannes.
Oyonnax sit 5th in the league and comfortably within the Barrage spots, but have largely snuck under the radar. They haven’t endured the off-field drama of Brive, who sit a place below them, nor have they come from nowhere with their ascent, à la Valence-Romans and their exceptional season to date.
Perhaps it’s their style of play, that Oyonnax fly-half Zack Holmes recently described as being somewhat pragmatic in a recent interview on The Rosbifs Rugby Podcast, that hasn’t caught the eye in the same way of free-flowing Provence and Colomiers? Or maybe it’s the fact that despite being one of the most consistent sides in the league, they have just fallen short of the sort of shock away victories that have lit up the Pro D2 season to date.
Either way, it suits Oyonnax just fine. A settlement of only 22,000 people just 50 miles west of Geneva, fanfare doesn’t come naturally to a town and club that Gregory di Marco, the club’s General Director, has described as purely being “all about hard work”.
It’s easy then to forget just how successful the Oyomen have been over the last decade or so. Since promotion in the 2012/13 season, they have featured five times in the Top 14, and when in the second tier, they’ve tended to dominate. Not bad for a side whose stadium, Stade Charles Mathon, can hold more than half the population of the town it sits in.
Last season’s 12th place finish was therefore by far their worst at any point during their period of yo-yoing between divisions, undoubtedly unsettled by the comings-and-goings of Oyonnax legend Joe El-Abd, who in moving to his full-time role with England ended (for now) a twelve-year-long playing and coaching association with the club.
This season though, they are in a good place. Dominant in winning away at Soyaux Angoulême last week, it should have been two away wins on the spin were it not for a ten-minute, 21-point-conceding meltdown the prior week away to Colomiers. Late losses away from home have punctuated the season, but picking up five losing bonus points on the road shows just how consistently competitive they’ve been to date.
At home, Oyonnax have only lost once, and that was also in the dying embers of a Round 1 tie that must seem a distant memory for the Grenoble side that came out on top. They will be confident of extending their winning home run here in spite of injuries to key men Ali Oz and former Vannes back row Wandrille Picault, and can select a 23 with over 200 international caps between them.
Argentina international Mayco Vivas starts at loosehead, Fijian Leone Rotuisolia packs down alongside their uncapped-Australian captain Phoenix Battye in the second row, whilst former Springbok Uzair Cassiem starts at number 8. In the outside backs, former Bordeaux and France U20s Enzo Reybier is on the wing, outside Louis Morland, who in only his first full season in professional rugby has already garnered a reputation as one of the league’s premier outside centres, and is attracting plenty of Top 14 interest.
Four Georgians from Oyonnax are selected in the Lelos squad for the upcoming Rugby Europe Championship, although only two feature here; Vano Karkadze at hooker, and Vasil Lobzhanidze as replacement scrum-half, mirrored on the Vannes bench where his national team counterpart Mikheil Alania also wears the 21 jersey.
The half-back sub-plots are plentiful in this fixture. Viewership of Pro D2 in Napier, New Zealand might normally be limited, but expect that to change tonight. For the first time in the 11 seasons the pair have played in France, scrum-half brothers Michael and Jonathan Ruru will start against one another in the no.9 shirt.
Outside Ruru Sr., Maxime Lafage, already Vannes’ all-time top point scorer, will play his hundredth game for the Breton side. They are captained by Steeve Blanc-Mappaz, who in his first season in Brittany already looks set to hit stalwart status at his new club. Before moving to Lyon, Blanc-Mappaz achieved the remarkable record of playing in all possible 34 games in a single season for Grenoble, starting in 33 of them. Since his early season move from Les Loups, he’s only missed one game, and is already an integral cog in Vannes’ push back to the Top 14.
Vannes have won more than they’ve lost away from home this season regardless of team selection, testament to the cohesion and depth of their squad. This might be their sternest away test to date. For Oyonnax, it’s a huge opportunity to state their credentials not just as Barrage hopefuls, but potential promotion favourites.
Best of the Rest - Round 19
This is one of those intriguing rounds of Pro D2 where plenty of the teams lower down the league host the “big boys” aiming for promotion: see the games at Carcassonne, at Biarritz, and in Mont de Marsan. Provence will hope to pick up ground on Vannes at the top, while wins are becoming increasingly critical for a Grenoble side if they are to reach the play-offs.
But it is the latter of these three that is most intriguing given the respective records of the two sides. Brive have only secured one losing point on their travels since they won away in Round 2 against a struggling Dax side. Stade Montois, meanwhile, may have only won five of their nine home games, but that doesn’t speak to the calibre of those wins. They beat high-flying Valence Romans in their last outing at the Stade Andre et Guy Boniface, and then in the first half of the season they toppled four of the five highest operating budget teams in Vannes, Provence, Nevers and Grenoble. Will they complete the quintet of giant killings by overcoming the biggest budget of the lot on Friday night?
The other relegation-threatened side at home this week is Béziers who take on fellow strugglers Dax. Both sides sit just outside the relegation zone on 26 points, albeit Dax’s tally has been reduced down to that courtesy of their 14-point penalty. Béziers have returned to some good form at home recently, and they will hope that is enough against a resurgent Dax.
Pro D2 continues this Thursday (29th January) with Oyonnax v Vannes, available to UK & Ireland viewers for free via FRUK Rugby on YouTube.