{"id":687395,"date":"2026-01-10T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687395\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:44:09","slug":"stade-francais-27-25-exeter-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/687395\/","title":{"rendered":"Stade Francais 27 \u2013 25 Exeter Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\tStade Francais came from behind to execute a narrow victory over Exeter Chiefs in Paris in round three of the EPCR Challenge Cup on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n\tAn impressive first half from Chiefs put them 0-17 up on the French hosts. However, the men in pink emerged revitalised after the break and turned the tide of the game in their favour.<\/p>\n


\n\tWinger Paul Brown-Bampoe marked his return to the pitch for the first time in nearly three months with the first try of the afternoon. Chiefs were on the backfoot, defending in their own 22, when an overthrown Stade ball was scooped up by Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.<\/p>\n


\n\tCarrying out of his own half, a quick feed from Charlie Chapman to Dafydd Jenkins enabled the Welshman to lob a spiral out to the wing for Brown-Bampoe. It was a familiar site to see him storming down the touchline against a French side to ground the ball in the corner before Henry Slade slotted the conversion.<\/p>\n


\n\tJust after the half hour mark, dominance from the Chiefs pack at the scrum produced a penalty within range of the posts. Slade calmly knocked it over, taking Chiefs into a double-digit lead.<\/p>\n


\n\tDespite the clock being in the red, Chiefs\u2019 work in the first half wasn\u2019t done until Scott Sio forced himself over for a try. Patience and execution of the gritty work stereotypical of an Exeter pack saw them inch their way closer to the line, forcing Stade back with each carry.<\/p>\n


\n\tSio took the final pick to secure five points which Slade quickly made seven.<\/p>\n


\n\tHalf-time: Stade Francais 0 \u2013 17 Chiefs<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n\tIt looked as though Chiefs were starting as they meant to go on at the outset of the second half. Making quick work of advancing into the Stade 22, they peeled off a strong driving maul to take the ball to the phases. Again, it was Sio who took the important carry and was applauded as the try-scorer.<\/p>\n


\n\tSlade\u2019s conversion attempt unfortunately pulled wide of the uprights.<\/p>\n


\n\tIt took 51 minutes, but Stade had their first points on the board when replacement tighthead Giorgi Melikidze muscled his way over at the base of a rubble of bodies. From there, a flood of scores followed for the home side.<\/p>\n


\n\tThibaut Motassi leapt over a ruck to score before a penalty try was awarded Stade\u2019s way. That all came in quick succession of two yellow cards for Chiefs for cynical play on the line. The bonus point try was scored in the corner by Charles Laloi to put the Frenchmen ahead at 68 minutes.<\/p>\n


\n\tChiefs looked to have potentially robbed the victory with a Slade drop goal minutes later, but ill-discipline produced a penalty in the Exeter 22 within kicking distance for Laloi.<\/p>\n


\n\tDespite fighting their way downfield, in the 84th minute, as the potential for another Slade drop goal loomed, Chiefs were penalised at the ruck and the game was over.<\/p>\n


\n\tChiefs will travel home with an important bonus point, but it means the potential for a preferable draw in a last 16 game hinges on a dominant performance against Cardiff Rugby at Sandy Park next Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n


\n\tFull-time: Stade Francais 27 \u2013 25 Chiefs<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n

\n\tStade Francais: <\/strong>J Jonas; C Laloi, J Marchant, T Vili, L Etien (Delbouis 48\u2019); L Bourdette (Barre 46\u2019), T Motassi; J Iscaro (Emile 48\u2019), G Nicotera, P Emile (Melikidze 48\u2019), P Gabrillagues, S Turagacoke (Pesenti 46\u2019), J Scelzo, Hirigoyen, I Mapu.<\/p>\n


\n\tTries: <\/strong>Melikidze, Motassi, Penalty try, Laloi Conversions: <\/strong>Barre Penalties: <\/strong>Laloi<\/p>\n


\n

\n\tChiefs: <\/strong>O Woodburn; I Feyi-Waboso, H Slade, W Rigg, P Brown-Bampoe; W Haydon-Wood, C Chapman; S Sio (Goodrick-Clarke 52\u2019), J Dweba (Yeandle 52\u2019), B Tchumbadze (J Roots 52\u2019), D Jenkins (c) (Pearson 63\u2019), A Zambonin (Tuima 63\u2019), T Hooper, E Roots, G Fisilau (James 74\u2019).<\/p>\n


\n\tUnused replacements:<\/strong> Cairns, Coen<\/p>\n


\n\tTries: <\/strong>Brown-Bampoe, Sio 2 Conversions: <\/strong>Slade 2 Penalties: <\/strong>Slade Drop goal: <\/strong>Slade<\/p>\n


\n\tYellow card: <\/strong>Greg Fisilau, Lewis Pearson<\/p>\n


\n

\n\tReferee: <\/strong>Craig Evans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stade Francais came from behind to execute a narrow victory over Exeter Chiefs in Paris in round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-687395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115872521485786170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687395","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=687395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}