Rugby Union: Brive happy to play `real rugby' again

Brive 29 Bath 1

Brive 29

Bath 12

After Toulouse's win in Leicester on Saturday, Brive proved yesterday that French clubs are still in with a chance in the Heineken European Cup. Despite a traumatic few weeks for their club, including a narrow loss at the Recreation Ground, Brive showed the ability to lift their game and to play at speed in this hard-fought, but stop-start match.

Although Brive scored two good tries to none, the turning point was perhaps an innocuous looking maul near halfway after 33 minutes. Until then, Bath had impressed by the power of their forwards, and the strength of their impact in the tackle.

Jon Callard, successful with three early penalties, had kept them in touch and despite Christophe Lamaison's second penalty, coming after a try by Pascal Bomati, that made the score 13-9, Bath were still very much in the match.

Their forwards, however, attempting to maul into Brive territory from a line-out, suddenly found themselves going backwards. The Brive pack, led by the dynamic loose-forward Loic van der Linden, lifted their commitment, drove mercilessly into the maul and from the resulting breakdown the referee awarded a penalty. To Brive. Lamaison, who once again produced a near faultless performance at outside-half, goaled from 45 metres.

Brive never looked back. Their forwards appeared to gain in confidence while Bath heads began to drop, and although Brive had to wait until the 67th minute for Alain Penaud to put the game beyond doubt with a fine individual try, the home side started to show some of the class and cohesion which made them last year's European champions.

Played in hot, sunny conditions, the game was notably free of any of the antagonism which marred the Pontypridd game here three weeks ago and the only official warning from the referee was a yellow card for Adedayo Adebayo after a dangerous high tackle on Lisandro Arbizu.

Brive had surprised even their own supporters by playing Penaud at full- back, replacing him at outside-half with Lamaison. The move appears to have paid off, not only because Penaud was in his element as a free- ranging attacking full-back but also because the rationale of stiffening up their back-line defence seems to work perfectly.

Bath's threequarters were remarkably inept in their use of the ball, and while Jon Sleightholme had one promising run early on he scarcely saw the ball, except when he was chasing an endless series of inaccurate kicks from Mike Catt.

The up-and-under seemed to be Catt's only option and, although he pressured Penaud on a couple of occasions, the tactic was over-used and the kicks never accurate enough to threaten the Brive line.

"The heat was not a factor in our defeat. Brive put us under huge pressure right through the match," the Bath coach, Andy Robinson, said. "And in a crucial period we gave away too many penalties and put ourselves under pressure.

"I will not criticise individual players but although I was very impressed by Brive at our place we allowed them to play here and gave them chances."

His opposite number, Laurent Seigne, said: "We were looking forward to some real rugby again after Pontypridd. It is important for us to make sure of second place in the pool and we would like to play in this way every weekend."

Brive: Tries Bomati, Penaud; Penalties Lamaison 4; Conversions Lamaison 2; Drop goal Lamaison. Bath: Penalties Callard 4.

Brive: A Penaud; P Bomati, L Arbizu, D Venditti, S Viars; C Lamaison, P Carbonneau (capt); D Casadei, L Travers (O Gouaillard, 53), R Crespy, E Alegret (Y Manhes), P Lubungu, L Van Der Linden, O Magne, F Duboisset (R Sonnes, 68).

Bath: J Callard (C Harrison, 77); J Sleightholme, P de Glanville, M Perry, A Adebayo; M Catt, A Nicol (capt); D Hilton (C Horseman, 77), M Regan, V Ubogu, M Haag (D Lyle, 60), N Redman, R Earnshaw, R Webster (E Peters, 60), S Ojomoh.

Referee: K McCartney (Scotland).