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Y. Charcosset (17'), F. Marchetti (60')
Tries
A. Callandret (12'), N. Megdoud (28')
J. Shillcock (17', 60')
Conversions
S. Davies (12', 28')
Penalties
S. Davies (21', 50', 62', 67')
This said more about where both clubs are than any single move or moment. Grenoble arrived a touch streaky but with proof they can close tight games; they left Amédée-Domenech having controlled the scoreboard and the mood. Brive, fresh off their first defeat of the season, needed a settled, authoritative response at home. They didn’t get it.
Context matters. Brive’s resources and their five-from-five start made this a yardstick fixture. Instead, Grenoble’s composure under pressure and their decision-making in Brive’s half did the talking. Two first-half finishes from Aurélien Callandret and Nadir Megdoud, plus a metronomic night from Sam Davies, gave them a lead they never looked like tossing away. It wasn’t flashy; it was adult rugby away from home.
If you’re looking for the turn, it’s not a single swing so much as a slow squeeze. Brive had the ball and the set-piece launch they wanted, yet Grenoble owned the gainline when it mattered and milked the ledger. Davies’ four penalties after the break turned Brive’s pressure into Grenoble points, and that’s the coldest read you can have on a night like this.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAKS
TACKLE
TACKLES MISSED
TURNOVERS WON
PENALTIES CONCEDED
YELLOW CARDS
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The numbers back the feel of it. Brive had more possession and more carries, but managed only one clean break. Grenoble made five. That’s not just a finishing stat; it points to who won the contact and who scavenged smarter ball. Grenoble also conceded fewer penalties, which explains why they kept the scoreboard moving even when they spent swathes without the ball.
Credit the visitors’ forwards for that resolve. Giorgi Pertaia got through an eye-watering shift in defence (25 tackles), Otunuku Pauta added 20, and Fergus Lee-Warner was everywhere until and after his yellow on 44 minutes. That sin-bin could have flipped it; instead Grenoble leaked only one try in the period and forced Brive back into their shell almost immediately via Davies’ boot. That is experience speaking at the breakdown and discipline speaking on the edge.
Davies deserves his own line. Six from six off the tee, including those four second-half penalties, is more than polish. It’s a read of the game: distance the contest, ask Brive to chase from awkward field positions, and dare them to produce the linebreak that hadn’t been there. On the edges, Raffaele Storti and Romain Fusier asked enough questions to keep Brive honest; Fusier’s hands in the lead-up to Megdoud’s finish were a neat touchpoint of control in traffic.
Brive weren’t poor across the park, but they were blunt where it mattered. The lineout purred and they got two tries from the pack through Yanis Charcosset and replacement Francisco Coria Marchetti, yet they rarely bent Grenoble on first phase. Aymeric Luc and Julien Tisseron found metres in the backfield without the busts to match, and with Grenoble’s chop tackles sticking, Brive were often carrying into set lines rather than onto front-foot ball. Ten penalties conceded and only one clean break tell you why the red-zone visits didn’t translate.
The second half distilled the night. A man up after Lee-Warner’s card, Brive struck through Marchetti and had the crowd into it at 14–20. From there, Grenoble didn’t panic. They exited properly, camped where the referee would make calls, and Davies did the rest. That’s clinical. It also hints at a work-on: two tries in 80, both before the break, means Grenoble still leaned on the tee to finish the job. On another night, against a side with more bite off strike plays, that reliance could be expensive.
For individuals in black and white, Irne Herbst and Samuel Maximin grafted, but Brive struggled to generate dominant collisions or force penalties on their terms. Jamie Shillcock hit his kicks, yet the backline shape outside him seldom put Grenoble’s midfield in two minds. The visitors’ spacing and tackle technique deserve praise for that, but Brive’s lack of variation around the 13 channel was a theme.
Does 26–14 flatter Grenoble? Not especially. Brive had enough ball to make this tighter, and they’ll kick themselves for how they managed the 10-minute powerplay, but the side that controlled the gainline, the penalty count and the scoreboard won by two scores. That feels about right.
In the wider frame, this is a result that travels. Grenoble have been up and down, but you don’t leave Amédée-Domenech with four points unless you’ve got a pack with a hard edge and a 10 who knows the room. For Brive, two defeats on the bounce extend the wobble from Sapiac into their own backyard. After Montauban, head coach Sébastien Tillous-Borde said, "On ne méritait pas plus." On this showing, the blunt verdict still applies: tidy the discipline, add teeth to the phase play in the red zone, or heavier nights will follow. Grenoble, meanwhile, take something more sustainable than a one-off: proof their defence, breakdown craft and game-management travel. That’s currency in this league.
