There are matches that are tense by nature. This Brive / Béziers, historic poster of the French rugby championship, can smell like gunpowder for several reasons. The first is that these are two teams who faced each other in the play-off last year. A meeting where the Héraultais won at the very end of the match 33 to 31and which had frustrated the Brivists. “A feeling of revenge? I don’t think so, no” nevertheless explained Sita Timani, second row of CA Brive. “It’s true we lost this quarter-final last year but this year we are a different team, with a different mentality. I wouldn’t say we are better, no, but I think we are “It’s improved. We’re in the right direction as a team to where we want to go.”
The right direction is also this offensive efficiency of CA Brive: six three-quarter tries last week against Montaubanwhile the CAB had shone at the start of the season with its devastating balls carried. “It’s a balance to find.” analyzes David Darricarrère, CAB backline coach. “It is not because today, we only score tries from three-quarters away that we should no longer score forward tries. Above all, we must focus on our strengths: at the start of the season, we scored a lot on our forwards because we relied on them and we were building offensively. Today, we tend to play a much more complete game.
Thomas Zenon back, Chauvac and Bosch also, Courtney Lawes still captain
To face Béziers, Brive can count on some returns from injuries: this is the case of Simon-Pierre Chauvac, injured in the hand, and Curwin Bosch, fly-half who will have to replace Stuart Olding, injured in the ankle. In his back lines, David Darricarrère can also count on a return: Cantalou Thomas Zenon, who spent three seasons in Béziers, will start on the right wing, in place of Asaeli Tuivuaka. “The choice is based on performance and training.” specifies the Landes coach, “but also the connections. When you play a lot next to players, you manage to perceive what the player next to you is going to do. So it allows you to anticipate and this half-second allows you to break. So these connections, we try to find them in training, particularly so that when there are one or two changes, the players can find each other more easily.”
In Béziers, note the tenure of a solid hinge composed of the former Brive scrum-half Sam Marques and the fly-half Charly Malié. Gabin Lorre, co-top scorer in Pro D2 with eight tries, is on the bench.
Senegal
