Brive continues its momentum. After his great victory and his 43-0 inflicted on Colomiers in the second period, the CAB went for two in a row by winning away after a victory at home, which it has only been able to do once in Soyaux-Angoulême at the start of the season. Brive won 26 to 16 in a rather controlled match, despite indiscipline and a few missed points along the way.
The message had been sent all week: ambition but humility. Nice, their evening opponent, remained on a defensive bonus snatched from Montauban (34-31) and above all obtained only one victory at home (against Mont-de-Marsan 29-27). At the start of the match, it was a scorers’ duel between Tanguy Ménoret and Hugo Verdu. Thanks to a brilliant inspiration from Stuart Olding, Mathis Ferté scores his fifth try of the season and the first of the match to make a first break. In the last ten minutes, Brive, very penalized, almost got caught by the opponent’s scorer, but thanks to Ménoret’s miss, CAB was ahead at the break 11 to 9.
A confusing match at times and the brilliant inspiration of Carbonneau
In the second period, Nice missed their return from the locker room and conceded a try after a nice shift from Ferté for Lefranc who, for his second match shifted to the center, scored his first try of the season. By scoring on a Verdu penalty in the 55th minute, we say to ourselves that Brive, now leading by 12 points, is safe against the much too confused Nice side. That’s without taking into account…Brivist indiscipline, with a yellow card for repeated fouls for Usaraga which leads to a trial situation for Nice. After a rejected try, it was finally Berenguel who scored in the 67th minute. But two minutes later, Carbonneau, with a very well felt kick on the wing, iced the Marcel-Volot stadium and gave his team a ten point lead. The Brivists will have several balls on touch, an area particularly well mastered this Friday evening, to try to get the offensive bonus but will lack precision.
“It’s not our best match, we still made too many mistakes and played poorly on the territory” underlined after the meeting Marcel Van der Merwe, the Brive right pillar and team leader, “but it’s a victory. We really wanted to win, we were all involved from the start of the match.” “What we are missing tonight is the offensive bonus that we miss at the end, explained manager Pierre-Henry Broncan, but that’s the only negative point of the match because I find that offensively, beyond the three tries we scored, we created chances.”
A victory in front of around sixty 100% Coujoux having traveled 8 hours to come and encourage their team.
After this 11th day, while waiting for the latest results, Brive is 3rd in Pro D2, three points from Grenoble and two from Montauban, their next opponents in the 3rd block which will see the end of the first legs.
