The Hopefuls of Narbonne Capitulate to Albi

The physically superior team from Albi triumphed despite the fact that Narbonne dominated the closing stages.

The visitors were in charge from the beginning of a match which got off to a bizarre start with the ref being knocked out by the ball from the kick off.

Albi took an early lead through a penalty and a converted try. Then Narbonne got onto the score sheet with a couple of tries from first Algisi and then Sanchez.

In the second half Albi spread it wide to make it 35 – 32 with a few minutes left.

Despite a splendidly energetic burst towards the end Narbonne, well led by Dubois, Algisi, Seron and Stu Smith (the Scot), could not quite manage to rescue the game.

Too many handling errors and a failure to show any initiative at restarts rendered a brave flourish at the end futile.

In conclusion, it has also to be said that there were some pretty incomprehensible decisions from the ref.

This article was posted on 31-Oct-2005, 15:54 by Hugh Barrow.