Wednesday, 21 October 2026
Three losses across the opening three rounds of evidence, shipping a combined 119 points against and returning nothing from the log beyond a pair of losing bonus points — that is the arithmetic Lyon supporters are sitting with as the squad prepares to travel to Bayonne on Saturday. The baseline from last season is a side that finished third on 67 log points, scoring 81 tries and conceding 60, a team built to be above the gainline and threatening at the breakdown; what these three results show is a team leaking points in volume, from a 28-51 away loss to Bordeaux Bègles through to the 33-40 home loss to Sharks in the Challenge Cup, with only the 16-28 home defeat to La Rochelle sitting even close to a margin that suggests a contest. Three games, zero wins, and the question that an away trip to Bayonne forces without delay is whether the set piece and the lineout — the platform from which Lyon built that third-place finish — are supplying the kind of clean possession that allows them to stay on the right side of a scoreline when the match is still in the balance.