Gloucester end season with a whimper as Stade Francais overcome European heartache with Challenge Cup final win

Gloucester 17 Stade Francais 25: Tries from Sergio Parisse, Jonathan Danty and Geoffrey Doumayrou ended Gloucester's hopes of reaching the Champions Cup play-offs

Sergio Parisse lifts the European Challenge Cup after Stade Francais' victory over Gloucester (Getty)

France struck the first blow in this weekend’s two Anglo-French finals as Stade Francais won their first European title at the fifth attempt by defeating Gloucester 25-17 to lift the Challenge Cup, just two months after their future was thrown into serious doubt.

With March’s announcement of a merger with fellow Parisians Racing 92 scrapped, a rejuvenated Stade side was able to outscore Gloucester three tries to two and claim their first European title after two defeats in both the European Cup and Challenge Cup over the last 16 years, giving the French the bragging rights here in Edinburgh ahead of Saturday’s showcase Champions Cup final between Saracens and Clermont Auvergne.

Gloucester, who finished ninth in this year’s Premiership, got off to the perfect start as Jonny May’s try put them ahead, but by the time British and Irish Lion Ross Moriarty went over for their second two minutes from time, three tries from Sergio Parisse, Jonathan Danty and Geoffrey Doumayrou had ended their Challenge Cup hopes, and also any ambitions of qualifying for next season’s Champions Cup through the play-offs.

The only English smiles will have been found in Northampton, where the Saints now know they will be taking on Connacht in the play-offs, with the winner taking either newly-crowned Challenge Cup winners Stade or Cardiff Blues in the final.

Stade began with a solid 10 minutes of relentless pressure, but if you give May a yard of space, more often than not you will pay the price. The England wing’s speed is well-documented, and when and interception chance was served up for the pace merchant, he needed no second invitation. The opportunity came from Stade’s desire to keep the ball alive, with the outside centre Doumayrou offloading in the tackle to Parisse, the talismanic No 8 rounding the corner to take aim at the Gloucester defence.

With defenders committed, Parisse flicked an extravagant offload behind his back to Jules Plisson, who passed almost directly backwards to Danty, and the inside centre’s pass wide to Jonathan Ross was scripted perfectly by May to collect possession on his own 22 and go 80m untouched to score the opening try in the 14th minute, Billy Burns converting to give Gloucester a somewhat surprise 7-0 lead without building a genuine attack.

Jonny May gave Gloucester the dream start with an interception try in the 14th minute (Getty)

Gloucester had problems in the scrum though, and matters were made even worse by the immediate loss of New Zealand international prop John Afoa, who lasted two scrum downs before being replaced by Paddy McAllister. A penalty for Stade soon followed after Scotland centre Matt Scott was penalised in the ruck for entry, and Plisson duly converted the kick at goal.

It would be another kick that would bring more points for Stade, though this time in the form of their first try. The full-back, Hugo Bonneval, broke down the left wing before offloading inside to Doumayrou. With a penalty advantage after Richard Hibbard was caught off his feet in the ruck, the Australian scrum-half Will Genia tried a delicate chip over the defence that lock Hugh Pyle was able to get his hand to ahead of Gloucester’s half-back pairing, and his tap backwards allowed Parisse to collect and score, Plisson converting to level the scores just after the half-hour mark.

Will Genia and Charlie Sharples contest a high ball (Getty)

The chilly Murrayfield air was beginning to warm though by tempers rising, and after scrum-half Willi Heinz was sin-binned for a late, high hit on Plisson to reduce Gloucester, tensions boiled over. With the ball pushed into touch in a maul, a clear-out hit on Genia by the Gloucester openside, Lewis Ludlow, led to a near-30-man melee that spilled into the two technical areas, just 30 seconds after referee Jeff Lacey warned both sides for their behaviour. With plenty to cast the eye over, Lacey and the TMO, Simon McDowell, decided there was nothing more than a penalty for the original hit.

Heinz would not return, with Gloucester director of rugby David Humphreys choosing to send on Greig Laidlaw, the scrum-half hoping for a fitting swansong at the home of Scottish rugby.

Danty scores Stade's second try early in the second half (Getty)

But Stade brought the game back to life for the right reasons in the 57th minute. With Gloucester on the attack, Tom Marshall’s pass was intercepted by Camara. The wing had the pace to go the distance from halfway, but as he stumbled he made the right decision to offload to Bonneval, who had Danty on his shoulder to finish the move by going over unopposed. But like a penalty effort eight minutes before the try, Plisson’s kick at goal was off-target and eight points had gone begging for the French side.

Jonathan Danty dives over for Stade's second try (Getty)

Gloucester’s challenge was beginning to wilt and with it their hopes of playing in next season’s Champions Cup, and the crushing blow came 10 minutes from time. Stade played the ball from right to left after Gloucester failed to clear their lines from a defensive 5m scrum, and despite replacement fly-half Morne Steyn’s deep pass to Doumayrou, the centre was able to cut back right, step past Billy Twelvetrees and Mark Atkinson before hitting the afterburners to beat three further defenders and surge over.

There was still time for Steyn to knock over a penalty from 40 metres to extend the lead to 15 points, but by then Stade knew that their European final heartache was coming to an end. Gloucester refused to give in, and added a late try through Moriarty two minutes from time to reduce the gap, but all hope was gone and it was left for Stade to end a tortuous year with victory and genuine hope they can win the Champions Cup play-offs to take their place at Europe’s top table next season.

Tempers flare between Billy Burns and Hugo Bonneval (Getty)

Teams:

Gloucester: Tom Marshall (Billy Twelvetrees, 62); Charlie Sharples, Matt Scott, Mark Atkinson (Henry Trinder, 72), Jonny May; Billy Burns, Willi Heinz (Greig Laidlaw, 43); Josh Hohneck (Yann Thomas, 63), Richard Hibbard (Darren Dawidiuk, 73), John Afoa (Paddy McAllister, 22), Tom Savage (Mariano Galarza, 60), Jeremy Thrush (Freddie Clark, 75), Ross Moriarty, Lewis Ludlow, Ben Morgan

Stade Français: Hugo Bonneval; Waisea Vuidarvuwalu, Geoffrey Doumayrou, Jonathan Danty (Jeremy Sinzelle, 73), Djibril Camara; Jules Plisson (Morne Steyn, 67), Will Genia (Julien Dupuy, 70); Heinke Van der Merwe, Remi Bonfils (Laurent Panis, 73), Rabah Slimani (Paul Alo Emile, 41), Hugh Pyle (Willem Alberts, 67), Paul Gabrillagues, Antoine Burban (Raphael Lafakia, 72), Jonathan Ross, Sergio Parisse (c)

Replacement not used: Zurabi Zhvania