Oyonnax return to EPCR competition this Saturday (December 9) after a six-year absence - six years in which they were in France’s ProD2 play-offs every time - when they face Dragons RFC at Rodney Parade (kick-off 8pm).
Champions of the ProD2 last season, they’ll be hoping to take the same sort of decisiveness into the EPCR Challenge Cup this time around.
Best performance:
Pool stage Oyonnax have never made it past the pool stages of the Challenge Cup. The closest they came was a second-placed finish behind Gloucester Rugby in 2014-15.
Last season:
Not applicable Oyonnax were not in European competition last season, but thundered to the ProD2 title in France, topping the table by 24 points before easing past Vannes and Grenoble in the championship playoffs.
Key player: Domingo Miotti
Domingo Miotti joined up with Oyonnax ahead of the new season after making the switch from Glasgow Warriors.
Born in Tucuman, Miotti burst on to the scene in 2019 with one of the most remarkable Super Rugby debuts in recent years; with the Jaguares trailing to the Bulls with 10 minutes to play, his two late tries saw the Argentinian franchise claim a stunning victory at Loftus Versfeld.
That debut firmly established the fly-half in the Jaguares squad that were only denied a famous Super Rugby title by the Crusaders, with Miotti coming off the bench in the 2019 Super Rugby final in Christchurch. In total, he made 16 appearances for the Argentinian franchise, scoring 107 points across two seasons with Gonzalo Quesada's men.
A move to Western Force for the 2021 Super Rugby season followed, with the fly-half joining a back division including established internationals such as Tevita Kuridrani and Rob Kearney.
Miotti made his senior international debut in the 2020 Rugby Championship, coming off the bench to score a crucial eight points in December's 16-16 draw with Australia in Sydney.
Big signing: Rory Sutherland
Continuing on the theme of experience, the capture of Scottish international prop Rory Sutherland from Ulster Rugby will be sure to boost the Oyonnax setpiece.
Sutherland, a member of the Scotland quad knocked out of this year’s Rugby World Cup in France by Ireland, had been at Ulster on a short-term deal following the demise of previous club Worcester Warriors in September last year.
The front row comes with undoubted pedigree, selected for his first British & Irish Lions Tour to South Africa in 2021 as reward for returning to his best after a long-term injury.
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