Bernadet brace sinks Lions

A brace of tries by scrumhalf Alexis Bernadet was enough to blow away any chances the Emirates Lions had of causing an upset, as Montpellier held firm for a 28-5 victory in their EPCR Challenge Cup match on Saturday night.

Bernadet made up for a disallowed try in the first half - one of two that Montpellier forfeited - as he put the hammer down and scored twice in seven minutes and took the game away from the Lions just as they had given themselves some hope.

It was a crucial moment just after the Lions had clawed their way back from 7-0 down at the break to be at 7-5 when Quan Horn took a beautiful gap as the Lions pounded Montpelliers line, going in untouched. The conversion never counted after flyhalf Sam Francis missed the shot clock and kicked after his time was up.

Bernadet celebrated in style with his first try, especially after the disallowed try in the first half came after he had screeched down the sideline to score, but in the final pass, the television official had picked up Sam Simmons tackling Kelly Mpeku without the ball, and said he impeded Mpeku from trying to make the tackle.

Anthony Bouthier took a gap, slipped a tackle and surged upfield, finding Bernadet on his inside to create a gap between the sides and Bernadet did the same seven minutes later to make it more than two scores between the sides.

The Lions had fought valiantly, but were outgunned on a night where several decisions went their way to the dismay of the local crowd. Even though they were brave, they never had enough firepower and the result always seemed to be pre-determined.

It seemed that way especially when loose forward Marco Tauleigne burst over from close range in the first assault on the Lions line.

In all, Montpellier had 12 entries into the Lions 22, whereas the visitors had just four, showing that while they were brave, they weren’t at all clinical.

The final nail in the coffin came as the Lions attacked downfield, and a bounce of the ball eluded them, being turned over and put through almost the entire Montpellier side’s hands for Simmons to finish off a beauty of a counter attack that went all of 60 metres.

That sort of summed up the Lions night, and now they will need to lick their wounds, return home and hope for a big win against the Dragons to try and qualify for the playoffs.

Scorers

MONTPELLIER - tries: Marco Tauleigne, Alexis Bernadet (2), Sam Simmons. Conversions: Thomas Vincent (3), Aurellien Bareau.

EMIRATES LIONS - try: Quan Horn.