Plan-de-Cuques women secured a comfortable 26-18 victory over Stella Sports Saint-Maur in the Ligue Butagaz Énergie on Tuesday evening. The result keeps the hosts in eighth place with eight points from four matches, while the visitors remain tenth with six points from their opening four games. Both sides have yet to taste defeat this season, but the gap between them widened considerably on this occasion.
And here's the thing — we had looked at this fixture before kickoff and backed the home side with a decent degree of confidence. Sixty-four percent felt like a reasonable assessment, and the performance justified that stance. Plan-de-Cuques controlled the tempo from the opening exchanges and never really let the visitors back into the contest.
Stella Sports Saint-Maur had shown resilience in their previous outings, drawing three of their four matches so far. To be fair, they had managed a win against HBC Toulon on the road, but that form evaporated against a side that seemed to know exactly how to exploit their structure. The visitors never really got going, and the scoreline reflected a match that was decided well before the final whistle.
Plan-de-Cuques arrive at this fixture with mixed recent results — a narrow victory over Brest-Bretagne followed by defeats against Metz and Dijon in both domestic and cup competitions. By then, you could sense a side finding its rhythm, even if the results had been unpredictable. This performance suggested they had finally clicked into gear at the right moment.
The eight-point margin tells you everything about how this match unfolded. Stella Sports Saint-Maur's three draws had given them a sense of stability, but they lacked the cutting edge needed to trouble a determined opposition. Plan-de-Cuques, meanwhile, moved into a slightly stronger position in the table with this comprehensive win.
