{"id":165664,"date":"2025-06-07T18:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T18:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165664\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T18:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T18:47:17","slug":"wales-international-left-heartbroken-amid-wild-promotion-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165664\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales international left heartbroken amid wild promotion celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Davies and Grenoble were hoping to make it third time lucky in the Pro D2 play-off final, but underdogs Montauban spoiled their day<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_imagemaker-3.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Sam Davies looks crestfallen as Montauban fans celebrate their promotion to the Top 14(Image: FR-UK YouTube)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Wales fly-half Sam Davies once again suffered Top 14 heartbreak as Pro D2 leaders Grenoble were beaten in a dramatic promotion play-off by Montauban in Toulouse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">For the third year in a row, Grenoble were once again beaten in the Pro D2 play-off match &#8211; with Montauban sealing their place in the top flight of France ahead of next season. Davies&#8217; Grenoble had finished the season top of the Pro D2 with a dominant 98 points &#8211; 21 more than sixth-placed Montauban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">However, as was the case in 2023 and 2024, Grenoble were unable to win &#8211; as Montauban continued their remarkable play-off run with a spirited 24-19 victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">All is not lost for Grenoble and Davies though, with the Top 14 access match still to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">That will see them face the second-to-last team in the Top 14 from this season, with the winner playing in the top flight next season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Having signed a new three-year deal with Grenoble this season, the hope for Davies would have been that the French club could finally make the step back up to the Top 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Ultimately, despite 11 points from the boot of the 10-cap Wales international, that wasn&#8217;t to be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The Welshman was forced off injured after just six minutes of the match, using his jersey as a makeshift sling for his arm as he left the pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">However, his absence was short-lived &#8211; returning to the field 10 minutes later with Grenoble leading 3-0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Soon after, he extended their lead from the tee with a penalty of his own. <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/walesrugby.substack.com\/subscribe?coupon=7b6a76da\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.Link opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">However, underdogs Montauban rallied back &#8211; taking a 21-6 lead in the early stages of the second-half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The boot of Davies &#8211; as well as a try from Wilfried Hulleu &#8211; dragged Grenoble back to within two points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">With 13 minutes left on the clock, Davies had a penalty out wide to nudge Grenoble ahead, but his effort was agonisingly wide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Thomas Fortunel knocked over a long-range penalty six minutes from time to extend Montauban&#8217;s lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Desperately needing a try, Grenoble couldn&#8217;t find a score late on &#8211; leading to wild celebrations from the Montauban fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Davies and Grenoble were hoping to make it third time lucky in the Pro D2 play-off final,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-165664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales","13":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114643576203694048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}