Oyonnax must live without El-Abd

OYONNAX’S seven-try 53-10 bonus-point win over ProD2 rivals Soyaux-Angouleme on Friday – their first victory since October 25 – was a relief in more ways than one. In fact, relief probably doesn’t cover it.

- JAMES HARRINGTON

A day before the match, coach Fabien Cibray, who will take over from Joe El-Abd at the end of the season, had said a victory over the French second tier’s best travelling side – who have picked up four wins on the road – was ‘crucial’. He wasn’t kidding.

Cibray had previously avoided suggesting that the club are entering ProD2 survival mode, but it’s fair to say, regardless of Friday night’s result, that a crisis was not so much brewing at Stade Charles Mathon as it had exploded all over the counter top.

As early as mid-November, club president Dougal Benjdaballah issued a statement expressing his, “dissatisfaction and disappointment” with the club’s form and standing, and telling supporters that he had called the players together to let them, “know that much more is expected of them”.

Statistics, the bare bones of sporting history, can be cruel. The Ain club were playing Top 14 rugby last season, after winning the ProD2 a season previously.

But the numbers record that Oyonnax finished bottom of the Top 14, 10 points adrift of nearest rivals Montpellier, and were immediately relegated after just one campaign.

What the numbers don’t mention is that they played some decent rugby in that one season – or that they gave more than one more illustrious side a real scare.

They won seven and drew one of their 26 matches, including a hugely promising 36-17 victory over Clermont on their first match back in the French top-flight, a creditable 28-18 loss on the road at Stade Francais in their second, where they were right in it until the hosts scored a late try; and only lost 21-27 against all-conquering Toulouse in their third. What Bordeaux wouldn’t have given for the scores to have been that close in the Top 14 final last June.