Brive beat Stade Français
Fri, 16 May 2008 23:41
Brive did their immediate purpose of avoiding relegation a lot of good at Stade Amedée-Domenech in Brive on a wet Friday night.
The rain did not keep the people away and 15 000 spectators packed the stadium and 15 000 went away happy. There were the champions of 2007, second placed in 2008, coming down to Brive with a patchwork team to go with their outfits of mud and pink lilies and they went back up to Paris without a single point.
Not that it would harm the Parisians in their chances of a semifinal spot. The match meant more to Brive than it did to Stade Français.
Brive also played as if the match meant more to them. They outscrummed Stade Français, beat them to the loose ball, handled better and kicked better and dominated the second half to such an extent that Stade Français did not look like scoring a try in the match. Oh, they had one could run down the left but Norman Ligairi tackled long-legged Djibril Camara into touch.
Brive, on the other hand, scored a try and were close on other occasions, once held up over the line. They were much the better side.
The handling was not great on the night which meant many scrums and the scrums were troublesome and cumbersome. It meant that there was a lot of kicking. There was no smooth backline play and certainly no French flair on view. Pick-'n-drive was the nearest anybody got to handling.
It was astonishing to see Stade Français repeatedly wheeled in scrums and coughing up the ball.
The second wheeled scrum gave Brive the ball and they went wide to the left where lively, sturdy 20-year-old fullback Alexis Palisson came into the line, cut inside Christophe Dominici and scored. He missed the conversion as he missed three penalty attempts. In fact had his kicking for goal been adequate Brive would have won by a mile. Anyway the try made the score 5-0 after 20 minutes.
Playing veteran Dominici at fullback was a failure. When he did wing things he was fine but some of his other play was embarrassing.
The half-time score was 5-0.
When Stade Français knocked a Brive throw back from a line-out they conceded a five-metre scrum, the first of three in quick succession, one chosen in lieu of a penalty. Brive had little variety from such opportunities. Their option was for Antonie Claassen to pick up and drive on the right. Alexandre Manta was close once and once they were held up over the line.
Claassen, for his driving play, aggression at the tackle and in the tackle, was our Man of the Match.
But after this long siege of the Paris line, Stade Français scored. On a rare sortie into the Brive half they were awarded a penalty five metres in from touch on the right and long way put. Where Palisson had missed easy kicks, Lionel Beauxis had not difficulty at all in goaling the difficult one. 5-3 after 56 minutes.
The score did not signal a Stade Français revival for Brive came straight back on the attack and from a long way out flyhalf Fabrice Estebanez, whose abilities seem confined to kicking, kicked a high-= soaring dropped goal. The referee referred the matter to the television match official who declared that a goal had indeed been scored. 8-3 after 59 minutes.
With only half a minute remaining Brive had another penalty opportunity and from a long way out substitute Maxime Petitjean goaled the difficult kick. \
The final whistle went and Brive was happy,. Even Olivier Magne smiled.
Scorers:
For Brive:
Try: Palisson
Pen: Petitjean
Drop: Estebanez
For Stade Français:
Pen: Beauxis
Teams
Brive: 15 Alexis Palisson, 14 Norman Ligairi, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Ben Johnston, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Fabrice Estebanez, 9
Jean Baptiste Péjoine, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Alexandre Manta, 6 Simon Azoulai, 5 Johan van Zyl, 4 Fabien Domingo, 3 Pierre Capdevielle, 2 Jawad Djoudi, 1 Petrisor Toderasc
Replacements: 16 Kevin Buys, 17 Jean-Phillipe Bonrepaux, 18 Christian Short, 19 Vincent Forgues, 20 Damien Neveu, 21 Maxime Petitjean, 22 Suka Hufanga
Stade Français: 15 Christophe Dominci, 14 Julien Arias, 13 Geoffroy Messina, 12 Brian Liebenberg, 11 Djibril Camara, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Alexandre Albouy, 8 Pierre Rabadan, 7 Loic Charlon, 6 Romain Dibel, 5 Cliffie Milton, 4 Pascal Papé, 3 Damien Weber, 2 Mathieu Blin, 1 Franck Montanella.
Replacements: 16 Rabah Slimani, 17 Laurent Simutoga, 18 Lua Lokotui, 19 Said Hireche, 20 Terry Bouhraoua, 21 Mathieu Bastareaud, 22 Mirco Bergamasco
Referee: Franck Maciello
