Chartres beat Cesson-Rennes Métropole 31:28 in the Starligue on Thursday evening. The hosts stayed level on points with their visitors after three rounds, both sides sitting on two points from three games. It was a tighter contest than the form guide suggested.
And here's the thing, Chartres had not been convincing in recent outings. They lost 35:30 away to PSG on the 20th and dropped points against Tremblay in a 35:30 draw. Yet by then they seemed to find something, holding Cesson-Rennes at arm's length without letting the visitors pull away. The match never truly opened up, which suited the home side.
Both teams arrived with identical records — one win, two draws, no defeats. Cesson-Rennes had edged past Provence Aix 29:28 on the 19th, but could not carry that momentum into this fixture. To be fair, the visitors refused to go away, keeping the score respectable through the closing stages.
Recent results paint a picture of two sides still finding their feet. Chartres lost heavily to Montpellier 22:41 and drew with Val-d'Oise 25:18, while Cesson-Rennes fell to Nîmes-Gard 32:34 and lost to PSG 24:30. The gap between those results and what happened on Thursday was smaller than it looked on paper.
We had backed the visitors at 54 per cent confidence, but the match went another way. It was not a dramatic turnaround, just a refusal from Chartres to let the game slip. The clean-sheet run came to an end for neither side, but the result sits where it does.
The table remains unchanged after this round. Chartres stay 14th, Cesson-Rennes 10th, both on two points with goal difference still to be determined. What matters is that neither side has lost yet, and Thursday proved that anything is still possible.
