This author was in the Auch based group. We arrived there about 6pm on the Friday night to find that a good number of our party had already been enjoying French hospitality to the full in the shape of a long lunch at Les Daroles on the Market Square. There was no point in even trying to catch up.

The night developed as such nights do, the party ended up descending on an Irish pub - the name escapes me. As I entered this establishment I couldn't help thinking about Donaghadee and how he would be tut tutting at the choice of venue.

Not having the stamina I once did I made it a reasonably early night and retreated back to our hotel, the Ibis, around eleven. Given the state of various members of the tour party the following morning this was probably a wise thing to do.

Saturday dawned, the sun was shining, and the temperature was about 70. It was a pretty well perfect day to take in some sightseeing. Auch is in many ways an unremarkable town, that very fact is part of its charm. At no stage did I feel I was on the well worn tourist trail, it was a mid sized town in rural France going about it's business. The old town, a small area centered on the 16th century cathedral was very pretty indeed. There was a small farmers market, a good number of the stall sold local specialties such as armagnac, foie gras and duck.

Fifteen or so of us descended on Les Daroles for the now almost traditional 'tour lunch'. I don't have a clue how much rose we shipped but it was enough to leave me feeling nice and mellow as we set off for the stadium.

Stade Patrice Brocas is on the outskirts of town, about a mile away from the center. If you can picture somewhere like the Stoop but with raised stands on both sides of the pitch. It is a modern stadium, I assume a municipal one, which also had an athletics track ringing the field.

The bulk of us opted to stand, this we could do pitchside in front of the main stand without obstructing anyone’s view.

As well as doing the match report I was also sending text messages with the score updates back to Subtel. It was a mistake to attempt to do both things at once, my notes from the game are shoite. What follows will no doubt contain inaccuracies and omissions. If anyone else who was at the match wants to correct or add anything please feel free to do so.

From the off we dominated the game. An early chance to score was lost as Mike Catt missed a penalty from 40 meters out, this was something that was set to repeat itself throughout the game, had mike been on form from the spot we would have been clear by half time. Despite our dominance it was Auch who scored first, this was after 20 odd minutes in what was perhaps their first visit into our territory. On our own 22 we lost the ball this was spun out to their scrum half Brice Salobert who danced round a couple of defenders to put the ball down in the corner. At this stage I thought to myself 'How on earth are we losing this?' Auch missed the conversion; in fact their lead did not last very long. A few minutes later, having secured lineout ball on our own 22 Horak scored the try of the game, catching the Auch defence flat and running into the corner. Mike Catt missed the difficult conversion; with 24 minutes gone the score was 5 - 5.

On 30 minutes we were pinged for offside in front of our posts after another short spell of Auch pressure, yet again we found ourselves 8 - 5 behind in a game that we were dominating both in terms of possession and territory. My notes at this stage record a catalogue of errors. Attacking lineouts thrown too long, a rolling maul that whilst it looked good ended up with us losing possession and one glorious attacking play which we squandered by crossing with the line seemingly at our mercy. To be fair Auch did appear very streetwise, their defence was mean. When one of their players eventually got binned on 40 minutes for killing the ball it was not before time.

With Auch down to fourteen men some space opened up in their defence. This was taken advantage of by Spud in first half added time. In first half injury time one of his trademark runs cut through the Auch line and he was able to put the ball down between the posts. Catty duly converted and we went in at half time 8 - 12 up.

The Auch team came out early for the second half, any thought we may have had about them weakening in the second half were soon dispelled, they seemed very much up for the game. Very shortly after the kick off we were pinged for interfering in the lineout, the penalty was duly converted to bring the score to 11 - 12.

At this stage the game ping ponged without either side gaining a significant advantage. At one stage we were somewhat worried by the sight of Delon on the floor and requiring attention but after a few minutes he was up on his feet. Mike Horak also took a knock that required attention, let's just hope that both players, and all the others, are not added to our injury list as a result of this game.

On 55 mins we had a good spell of pressure, this ended with a penalty to us in front of the posts after about five Auch players were caught offside, Catty made no mistake, we were 11 - 15 up.

Somehow Auch seemed to raise their game. The band in the stand, who were great throughout the game, started going at full pelt. A couple of missed tackles allowed their full back Frederic Couzier to go in at the corner. To rub salt in the wound they made the tricky conversion, with 63 minutes on the clock we were 15 - 18 down. A loss to the part-timers seemed a distinct possibility.

Relief came some five minutes later in the shape of a try from Bish. I have no notes on the play leading up to it, from memory the ball came to him after we had stretched the defence with a good sequence of ball passing. Bish had the ball passed to him with space on the wing and made no mistake barging into the corner. Catty again missed the conversion; we had a narrow lead 18 - 20. This was the final score but not before we had a scare or two. On 78 minutes Auch missed a very kickable penalty from about 30m out.

So what can we take from this game? I was quite disappointed by the performance; this was the impression I got from most of those I spoke to afterwards. We do seem to have difficulty turning pressure into points. Having done the hard work to get into a scoring position we time and time again let ourselves down with silly errors. Both the tries that we shipped were soft ones; I imagine that when GG looks at the video he'll have a few words to say. On the positive side it was a win, however narrow, and we are in a good position to progress to the next round. I also get the feeling that we were playing somewhat within ourselves and could have raised our game more if required.

After the game we headed for a marquee that was set up behind one of the stands. Yet again we were reminded just how poor facilities for supporters are in the UK. A well staffed bar, at no stage did I have to wait more than a minute or so to be served. Beer at 2 Euro a glass, a range of tasty and reasonably priced snacks. It was warm and welcoming, everything the cowshed isn't.

In my own case I left the ground shortly after nine and after a drink and a bite to eat in the center of town had a reasonably early night of it, twelve hours of drinking had taken its toll. Some of our number no doubt made a longer night of it. I know of some that had even booked to see the 10pm performance of an Israeli/Palestinian circus that night.

Another very enjoyable tour thus over we look forward to welcoming Auch to the Madejski next weekend. I didn't meet one supporter who is planning to make the trip, I doubt there will be much, if any, travelling support. I will not be at the Madejski myself next week. If you are and you do meet any visiting supporters please do what you can to make them welcome. They were very welcoming to us and deserve the same warmth returned to them.

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