By Jason Harris
December 4 2006

GRAN and Narbonne were in action for the last time before European hostilities are resumed next weekend while Glasgow sat things out for the third weekend in a row. GRAN had a tough assignmnent as they had to travel to Treviso to take on the reigning Super 10 Champions Benetton and they came away empty handed after the home side took a 38-21 win and bagged a bonus point.

Italian international fullback Rima Wakarua was again on target for GRAN with three penalties and a conversion of South African lock Martin Englebrecht's consolation try at the end of the second half. GRAN were just 14-11 behind at the break following two of Wakarua's three goals and a try from centre and recent NPC import Aaron Kimura.

This defeat, allied to a bonus point win for Overmach, sees GRAN slip back into the bottom half of the Super 10 table, although their sixth place position with 18 points after four wins and four defeats from eight games, is relatively safe because GRAN are six points ahead of seventh placed LAquila.

The Top 14 returned to full strength at the weekend for Round 16 following Les Bleus' use of the big-name players during a disappointing three-week Autumn international campaign. Narbonne were at home against Perpignan, a side that hammered them in Round 2, and for the first hour an upset over the Catalans was on the cards.

Five penalties from fly half Cedric Rosalen had put Racing into a 15-12 lead with a quarter of the match to go, but they couldn't hang on as USAP nicked it with a try 11 minutes from time from captain and flanker Gregory Le Corvec. Nicolas Laharrague kicked the conversion, as well as the four earlier goals, to put Peripignan into fourth place, while Narbonne are now 11th on 26 points, just four ahead of bottom-placed Bayonne.

Narbonne's final Top 14 game in 2006 will be a daunting trip to Paris to play league leaders Stade Francais on 22/23 December.