The Aix Argonautes (1-3) will host the surprising Toulouse Ours (4-0) Saturday, March 15 at the Stade Carcassonne stadium in Aix-en-Provence, France in the fifth weekend of play in the French D1 Elite league’s B Conference.
The Argonautes were beaten 34-27 by the Ours in their season opener but rebounded with a 35-32 victory over the Nice Dauphins. However, in week 3 they were edged 35-34 by the Cannes Iron Mask and then last week lost to the Grizzlys Catalans 38-28.
The Ours opened the season with that 34-27 win over the Argonautes and followed that up with a surprising 15-14 victory over the Marseille Blue Stars. They then soundly beat the Grizzlys 48-27 before getting by the Nice Dauphins 24-13 on the road last week.
Argonautes quarterback Jason Gaines is the second leading passer in the league having thrown for 1,012 yards and nine touchdowns in the four games. His top targets, Dominique Thompson (27/434 yds/4 TDs) and Alexandre Agimel (17/293/3) are the #1 and #4 receivers in France.
Toulouse is led by quarterback Braden Howell who has completed 48 of 94 passes for 676 yards and 11 touchdowns and has been picked off three times. Thomas Hillion has caught 14 of those passes for 229 yards and three scores. The key to the Ours offense is the ground game with running back Adam Delamare who has rushed for 228 yards and two touchdowns along with Sami Poles who has 183 yards rushing along with Howell who has 20 carries for 162 yards and two scores.
The edge in this game would seem to go to the hard charging Ours despite being on the road.