Brive squeeze and maul; Agen unravel as cards open the door
This didn’t need fireworks from Brive. It needed patience, a reliable tee and a pack that was happy to keep going where it hurt. They built the sort of slow, suffocating pressure that wins away in Pro D2, and when Agen lost their heads either side of the break, the game flipped from contest to procession.
The telling part wasn’t the late flourish but how early control was established. Three penalties from Jamie Shillcock had Agen chasing before half an hour had gone. That scoreboard squeeze let Brive lean on their lineout and maul; when Yanis Charcosset finished from close range, it confirmed where the leverage was. With John Cooney steering tempo and Brive owning the ruck speed share (lightning ball 64% and 96 rucks won to 64), they played off front-foot ball and kept field position without fuss.
Agen
Brive
J. Lebian (64'), L. Richardis (76')
Tries
Y. Charcosset (30'), Penalty Try (40'), L. Silva (67'), A. Luc (80')
C. Willis (64', 76')
Conversions
J. Shillcock (31'), J. Cooney (67'), S. Olding (80')
Penalties
J. Shillcock (5', 12', 25')
The match turned across two minutes that will give Agen’s review a headache. Yellow to Julien Lebian on 39 minutes, another to Valentin Gayraud a minute later, and the penalty try that followed. Sixteen-nil and edgy became 23-0 and resigned in the time it took to call the replacements down the touchline. Down to 13, any hope of building back-to-back entries disappeared.
Agen arrived under pressure after Provence had run through them in Round 1, and the raw edges showed in how they reacted. Nineteen penalties conceded to Brive’s eight is not survivable at this level, especially when so many were in the red zone and at the lineout drive. Even when the hosts did stitch something together — Lebian finished neatly on 64 minutes, and Lucien Richardis would later profit down the edge — they undercut themselves. Sio Tomkinson’s red card on 66 minutes killed any faint rally; within a minute Brive’s replacement hooker Lucas Da Silva had shoved over from the inevitable maul and Cooney knocked over the extras. That was the definitive act: cool heads punishing a hot one.
Match Stats
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
Brive didn’t have to chase width, and mostly didn’t. Their lineout went 14 from 16, and both the Charcosset finish and the penalty try came when Agen couldn’t set their feet against the drive. Cooney kept them tidy in exit and crisp around the base, and Shillcock, subbed on 66 with the damage already done, had justified every early shot at goal. There was late gloss too: Aymeric Luc finished in the 80th minute, with Stuart Olding adding the conversion, a fair reward for a visiting backfield that stayed alert to broken-field chances.
Does the margin flatter Brive? Not really. They led for 77 minutes and did the right things when the moments came. If anything, the coaches will be grumpy at conceding twice after the hour — a softening of detail once the maul had broken the game open. But the bigger picture is a road blueprint that travels: take the points, park your scrum-half where he wants the tempo, and make the opposition defend five-metre lineouts until they run out of bodies or patience.
Agen weren’t without punch. Lebian’s cameo summed up their night — energy and intent, undermined by discipline. Craig Willis had a mixed evening, sent to the bin early and missing too many tackles, but he at least kept the scoreboard honest with two clean conversions. The defence, though, missed 24, and the maul defence creaked every time it was asked to hold. You can’t exit or build phases from your 22 if you keep handing over access.
For Brive, this confirms a profile everyone suspects: a heavy pack, a pragmatic spine, and no qualms about squeezing you to death. They’ll want to tidy the last-quarter drift, but the set-piece platform and ruck tempo look locked in. For Agen, the takeaways are blunt. Fix the maul, fix the penalty count, and give yourself 15 men for 80. Until that happens, nights like this will keep getting away from them long before the final whistle.