Istres hosted Pau-Béarn in the ProLigue on Thursday evening, and the visitors took all three points with a 25-24 win. By then the table was still empty — both sides had played zero games, zero wins, zero points. There was nothing to separate them on paper, and on the scoreboard it came down to a single goal.
The hosts had been third in the standings before kick-off, Pau-Béarn sixth, but with no matches registered yet those positions carried no weight. What mattered was the result, and it was a tight one. The away side needed to be clinical, and they were.
Istres had won their last outing 33-26 against Dijon, while Pau-Béarn had edged Provençal side Aix 33-27 a few days earlier. Both teams had been finding the net freely in those fixtures, but here the margins were razor-thin. One mistake ends it, and in a game like that, there was little room for error.
Without detailed match events to break down, the story is in the scoreline. A one-goal victory for the visitors suggests they held their nerve when it counted. Istres pushed hard, but Pau-Béarn found a way through.
The ProLigue is only beginning, and both clubs now have a game under their belt. The standings will shift as the season progresses, but for now this result gives Pau-Béarn the early advantage.