Brive
Dax
S. Olding (4'), R. Marais (21'), Y. Charcosset (24', 28', 38', 40'), G. Cros (33'), L. Noon (55'), L. Broncan (68'), Y. Peysson (77')
Tries
T. Drean (14'), H. Fourquet (17'), M. CASENAVE (74'), R. SOVAU (80')
L. Broncan (4', 21', 24', 28', 33', 38', 40', 55', 68')
Conversions
H. Cerisier (14', 17', 74', 80')
L. Broncan (8')
Penalties
This didn’t tell us anything new about the top end of Pro D2 so much as underline it in thick ink. CA Brive, carrying the division’s biggest budget and a side already humming through the early rounds, overwhelmed a mid-table calibre US Dax with ruthless efficiency. The resource gap framed the expectations; the execution turned it into a rout.
The shape of it is clear from the sheet. A hooker scoring four before the break, two Dax yellows in that same window, and 52 points on the board by half-time. That’s not a fluke or a flurry out wide; that’s a superior pack taking field position, squeezing penalties and finishing in the red zone while the visitors tried to plug holes a man down. Brive didn’t so much find momentum as manufacture it on repeat.
For a quarter of an hour it was alive. Stuart Olding set the tone early, but Dax struck twice — Thibaud Drean and Hugo Fourquet — to flip it to 14–10. Then Brive found the lever. Retief Marais dragged them back in front on 21 minutes, and from there the home side played almost exclusively on the front foot. Two Dax sin-bins — Etienne Loiret (26’) and Mathys Vigeon (36’) — turned pressure into avalanche, and Yanis Charcosset cashed in mercilessly with close-range finishes at 24, 28, 38 and 40 minutes. Between those, Geoffrey Cros picked one off on the edge. The halftime ledger read 52–14, and the contest was gone.
Charcosset deserves the headline for his nose in traffic, but the game hummed to the rhythm of Leny Broncan. The fly-half took the points whenever they were offered, kicked nine from nine conversions plus an early penalty, and added a late try for a 28-point haul. More telling than the tally was the tempo: he kept Brive playing in the right areas and made Dax defend long, attritional sets where discipline and tight-five depth decide outcomes.
Was the margin harsh? Not really. If anything, the late Dax scores — Maxime Casenave on 74’ and Ratu Sovau at the death — trimmed what had been a chasm all night. Brive threw on bench muscle — seeing Christian Judge in reserve tells you plenty about the depth on hand — and still found another gear through Lewis Noon on 55’, Broncan on 68’ and Yann Peysson on 77’. Even with a yellow of their own on 72’ (Luke Griffiths), the hosts were never dragged into a scrap.
Where did Dax fall away? Discipline first. You can live with conceding the odd linebreak to this Brive backline; you cannot survive two yellow cards inside a half on this ground. The scoring pattern around those bins was decisive. Their set-piece and maul defence under stress also told: when a hooker dots down four times, it points to repeated losses of contest in the zone that matters most. Credit to Hugo Cerisier, who kept the board ticking and found the width for Fourquet’s finish, and to the bench for landing a couple of late punches once the game loosened. But their exits were messy when Brive turned the screw, and their contact height fed penalties that became touch-finders that became tries.
Brive won big, but there are notes. They conceded two yellows and slipped in concentration enough to ship 14 points late. Against the sides they measure themselves against — Oyonnax and Provence — that slack matters. The positive is clearer: after three losses in October, the last fortnight reads like a reset. Nevers away, job done. Here, the power game met accuracy, and the scoreboard reflects it.
Dax leave with a lesson rather than a scar. Seven days earlier they ground a draw with high-flying Provence; their season will be decided by how they manage matches like that, not nights like this. The takeaway is practical: tighten the discipline, tidy the maul defence, and keep their kick-exit shape intact when pressure comes. The scoreboard can make you doubt everything; the tape won’t. There were sequences — the two quick first-half tries, the late composure from Casenave and Sovau — that fit the profile of a side good enough to be safe if it plays 15 on the field and spends longer outside its own 22.
For Brive, this looked like a promotion project operating as it should: resources expressed through selection depth, red-zone efficiency, and a ten who manages the whole thing. For Dax, it’s a reminder of the league’s gradient and a clear to-do list before Béziers. Different ceilings, same truth: Pro D2 punishes indiscipline, and on nights like this it turns it into a landslide.