French Top 14 round five: Brive upsets Toulon
Brive was able to come away with a victory at home over Toulon in Stade Amedee-Domenech over the weekend.
Brive played a solid game in a win over a favoured Toulon side in round five. The two sides focused on defence in the opening half, limiting one another’s chances and taking a tie game into the break. After the half Brive was able to go on the offensive collecting points, while playing impressive defence and keeping Toulon off the board, resulting in a 27-9 victory.
Recap
Brive started off the scoring with a penalty in the fifth minute from scrum-half Mathieu Belie, to give the home team a 3-0 advantage early. Belie then struck again in the seventh minute, adding another three points to their total.
Toulon managed to answer back through two penalties of their own courtesy of fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, notching the game up at six heading into half-time.
After the break, Brive came out strong and Gerhard Vosloo was able to scamper over the try-line in the 47th minute. Belie tacked on the extra points to give Brive back the lead at 13-6.
Toulon answered back with a third penalty from Wilkinson in the 50th minute to cut the advantage to 13-9. However, that would be all the visitors could muster.
Brive then took over, getting a try from Simon Azoulai in the 65th minute, which was followed by a conversion from Alexis Palisson to extend the lead to 20-9.
The home side then put the icing on the cake with a try and conversion from Palisson in the 69th minute to finish off an impressive 27-9 victory.
Brive, usually known for their solid defence was able to put together an impressive offensive display against one of the league favourites. With that said, it is unclear how much longer Toulon will be considered a favourite heading into matches if they continue to struggle.
Analysis
Brive finds themselves at home in the middle of the pack. There is no question that the club plays very strong defence, nevertheless they will need to develop more on the offensive side of the ball as they have only tallied 98 total points this season.
Toulon continues to struggle and it is unclear whether or not they will be able to get out of their slump. Over the last two weeks they have lost to two teams outside the top five. Toulon cannot seem to find their game on offence with 90 total points this season. Toulon will have to turn it around quick if they hope to challenge for the League championship.
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