French Open League – La Rochelle : Fontenay and the Women’s Elites shine !

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The ‘Tournoi des 2 Tours’ has come to an end. Six new tickets for the French Open League finals on April 23rd and 24th have been awarded to the qualifiers. We summarize the confirmations and the surprises of this weekend of competition.

Group A : Fontenay on top and the surprise Pessac

We thought that Fontenay was reliving its demons of the previous day. In the long-awaited final of Group A against Saintes, the Trésifontains took the lead in the first half before being caught out at the very end of the match on a counter-attack concluded by Frédéric Estier. Finally, after a sudden death at high intensity, it is the Francilians who win and obtain their second victory after the one in Le Puy-en-Velay. Saintes can console themselves with this second place which offers them a ticket to the final in Sarcelles.

Pessac also won the ticket, finishing in third place and taking advantage of the fact that Fontenay had already won the precious ticket in the previous stage. Pessac, sixth in pool A the day before, surprised Dinan at the start of the day by winning 2-1 after an extremely close match. The Girondins were unable to repeat the performance against the weekend’s winner, but they did pick up another big win against Diderot XII in the match for third place.

Final standings 

1- Fontenay

2- Saintes (Q)

3- Pessac (Q)

4- Diderot XII

5- Dinan

6- Morlaix

7- Nantes

8- U24 M

Group B: The Elites Women create a sensation !

Jacques Bréchaire had announced it, the goal was to get the qualification for the final of Sarcelles. It is now done. After a first day finished in fourth place in the group, the Elites Féminines stepped up by beating Puy-en-Velay in the semi-final (2-1) after a sudden death. A victory that assured them of a qualifying ticket. Finally, following a magnificent final against Clermont (2-0), Cécile Roussel and her teammates won the most prized of the two, the golden ticket, reserved for the winner.

As the Auvergnats had already qualified in the first stage, the silver ticket was won by La Rochelle who beat Le Puy (3-1) in the match for third place.

Final standings

1- Elite F (Q)

2- Clermont

3- La Rochelle (Q)

4- Le Puy

5- Occitan Warriors

6- Pessac 2

7- Neuilly

8- Les Wasochs

Group C : Rendinantes and Hope will be in Sarcelles !

It was made official during this stage of La Rochelle, the Poule C becomes qualifying for the national final !

Winner of the Le Puy stage and therefore already qualified, Le Chesnay finished this competition in second place. Max Habesztrau’s players finished behind La 8ème, the second French Elite women’s team after a big defeat (7-0) in the final.

Having already competed in Group B and not being able to qualify in two pools, La 8ème did not count for the gold and silver tickets. They therefore go to the 3rd and 4th of this stage, Rendinantes and HOPE ! These two teams join Le Chesnay and Moirans, second of the first stage, in the final.

Final ranking

1- La 8ème

2- Le Chesnay

3- Rendinantes (Q)

4- HOPE (Q)

5- U24 F

6- La Rochelle F

7- NOUEST

8- Diderot XII

See you on Tuesday 7th December in On Avoine for a complete review of the results ! The French Open League will be back in Clermont on 29 and 30 January for the third and penultimate stage before the final.