Composed Montauban squeeze it late as Nevers run out of answers
This was about who could think straight when it mattered. US Montauban, coming off a brutal relegation year and a messy August, held their nerve on the road and owned the game’s closing passages. USON Nevers had ball, had platform, and had enough moments; they didn’t have the late-game edge to turn any of it into points.
If you wanted a read on Montauban’s reset, you got it in the last quarter. They chose field position over overplaying, managed exits cleanly and, with the game there to be pinched, trusted Enzo Herve’s boot and their defence. Nevers, by contrast, spent long spells camped in the right areas without a plan that survived contact or the whistle. That’s the difference between an away win in Round 1 and a frustrated home dressing room.
Nevers
Montauban
J. Wasserman (9'), S. Reynolds (17')
Tries
D. Brennan (14'), L. Dessaigne (44'), V. Ekuasi (45')
S. Reynolds (18')
Conversions
E. Herve (15', 45')
S. Reynolds (23', 49'), A. Cellier (59')
Penalties
E. Herve (31', 62')
The turn came immediately after half-time and it was self-inflicted. Nevers went down a man at the restart when Rati Zazadze saw yellow, and Montauban pounced in back-to-back punches: impact sub Lucas Dessaigne finished on 44 minutes, then Vaiolini Ekuasi powered over a minute later. Nevers had led 15–10 and were level at 15–15 in a blink; suddenly they were chasing at 15–22. Momentum, belief, the whole psychology of the night flipped in that two-minute window.
From there Montauban played the scoreboard. Herve even had a look at a drop goal on 52 minutes — the right idea if not the right strike — before taking the three on 62 minutes when Nevers coughed one up. It wasn’t spectacular, it didn’t need to be. They then denied Nevers clean ball and killed time with possession, even surviving a late yellow for Stephane Ahmed without conceding. Nevers didn’t score in the final stretch. That’s game management.
Match Stats
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The irony is Nevers had a lot of the structure right. Their lineout was rock solid (16 from 18) and when the pace was up in the first half, they found gain line and space. Shaun Reynolds sparked them with a tidy finish and 13 points all told, Johan Wasserman took his chance well, and Arno Botha carried tirelessly. But they bled 10 turnovers, and two yellow cards either side of half-time wrecked any semblance of control. You can’t invite that much pressure and expect it not to bite eventually.
Individually, Montauban had match-winners. Herve ran the last quarter like a grown-up 10 should, and his decisions were the spine of the win. Baptiste Mouchous gave them punch and metres from the back, and Johnny Matthews added surprising go-forward for a hooker, a nuisance Nevers never quite solved. Up front, Ekuasi was the headline: a telling carry for his try, a yellow card a minute later, then a mountain of work to help see it out with 14. That’s a chaotic line, but it mattered.
Montauban didn’t win because everything was tidy. Their set piece wobbled — the scrum in particular — and 15 penalties plus three yellows is not a sustainable model. What carried them was collision quality and economy: 21 defenders beaten to Nevers’ eight, fewer turnovers coughed up, and cooler heads after the break. That last part is new — and important — for a side trying to flush the baggage of last season and a 63–19 pre-season thumping.
Nevers’ late-game issues are harder to excuse. With territory and a functioning lineout, they needed either a maul that hurts or a phase plan that asks different questions. Too often the ball died on contact or was kicked away under little pressure. When you spend as much time defending as they did in the final minutes, it’s because you’ve ceded the terms of engagement. They did.
For Montauban, this is a proper away scalp to open life back in Pro D2, and it makes three on the bounce in this fixture. It changes the noise instantly, but it shouldn’t hide the work-ons: discipline and set piece must sharpen before Grenoble come calling. For Nevers, the takeaway is blunt. The shape is there, the lineout is there, and Reynolds looks in decent nick. But games are decided in the last 20. Until they find a reliable way to turn territory into points under pressure, nights like this will slip through their fingers. Narbonne at home next is an immediate chance to tidy up the red-zone detail and prove this was rust, not a trend.