In-form Stade Français made sure of their place in the Top 14’s play-off matches in fine fashion last weekend, comprehensively beating Lyon 46-27 in Paris.
The result simultaneously allowed Stade to progress to the “barrages” matches while denying Lyon a place in the final stages of this year’s competition.
It was a closely fought encounter for the opening half, with Stade leading 19-13 but the home side stretched their legs in the second period, due partly to superb attack but also some fairly average defending from the visiting side.
The pick of the Stade tries came from former Leicester Tigers winger Telusa Veainu while the game was still reasonably tight. It was a score which typified Stade’s dominance with boot to ball, with a bit of Fijian flair from Waisea proving the key difference.
WATCH: Telusa Veainu’s unbelievable feet leave defenders for dead on way to tryline
Kylan Hamdaoui was fantastic in the air all game and collected the up-and-under from fly-half Joris Segonds – who had a brilliant game off the tee.
From then on, long-term Stade stalwart Jonathan Danty – who played his final home game for the Parisian team – stuck the ball onto his toe behind the defensive line where in turn, it was collected by Waisea who then wrapped his arm around the last defender to the looping Veainu.
The Tongan internationalist then scampered home, and made the conversion for Segonds much easier by getting back to his feet to dot the ball down closer to the posts.
Brilliance in this Stade Francais try pic.twitter.com/Qr9b62OJO9
— Grant Constable (@GrantConstable) June 1, 2021
Indeed, on the penultimate weekend of Top 14 action before the play-offs, there were a number of great tries scored across the round, with Toulouse and Clermont serving up yet another end-to-end encounter.
Catch the best of the weekend’s tries in the compilation video below:
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