Stade Francais bring Edinburgh's unbeaten run to halt

Stade Francais 26-20 Edinburgh, Stade Jean Bouin
Scorecard

Stade Francais survived a second half resurgence from Edinburgh as they secured a 26-20 victory in their European Rugby Challenge Cup encounter at Stade Jean Bouin on Thursday.

Hooker Remy Bonfils scored the opening try for the home side in the 10th minute with fly-half Jules Plisson adding the conversion. However, Edinburgh made a brief comeback with fly-half Jason Tovey's penalty which reduced the gap to four points.

It was sheer dominance from the rest of the first half from Stade Francais as Hugo Bonneval crossed over in the 18th minute and nine minutes later they were awarded a penalty try which proved costly for Edinburgh after their prop Simon Berghan was sin-binned for the scrum infringement.

With Edinburgh reduced to 14-men temporarily, Geoffrey Doumayrou soon secured the bonus point for Stade Francais with a 32nd minute try and Plisson's double conversion meant they went into half-time with a 26-3 lead but not before replacement Sylvain Nicolas was sin-binned in the 37th minute for ruck infringement.

Edinburgh lock Fraser McKenzie capitalised on the yellow card of Nicolas and strolled past the post in the 45th minute but Tovey failed to add the conversion.

Fullback Blair Kinghorn had a chance to score the second try for Edinburgh but the ball was knocked out of his hand when he was about to cross over. Replacement Viliame Mata and scrum half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne managed to reduce the deficit with tries from 61st and 78th minute respectively but could not prevent their team from succumbing to a six-point defeat.

Edinburgh still continue to top the table in Pool 5 despite the defeat while Stade Francais are positioned third below Harlequins.