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Confrontation franco-française vendredi soir à Brive où le CABCL recevra Oyonnax à19h30. Si les choses sont bien mal engagées pour les Brivistes (deux défaites)
Oyonnax centre Pierre Aguillon hopes his side can continue to show their cool in the European Challenge Cup meeting at Brive.
The French Top 14 side have won their last three domestic fixtures and showed impressive composure to come from behind and beat Bordeaux-Begles last weekend.
Another win, this time in Europe, would keep them in the chase to advance from Pool 5 of the second-tier competition, and Aguillon wants to see the good run continue.
He said: “When you get into situations like we were in against Bordeaux, when you are down and you turn it around, it proves the group has got good self-control, which we have not always had.
“It confirms we have a squad of real quality here and we do not panic when the pressure comes on. That is a quality that all sides want to have.
“Our goal now is to retain that form in the coming weeks and to keep the team moving in a positive direction at an important time of the season.”
History would suggest the winning habit will stretch to four games. Oyonnax may have lost their last pool game against Gloucester, but they have never suffered back-to-back defeats in European competition.
Brive, meanwhile, have already achieved a piece of unwanted history. Their defeat to Italian side Zebre in October was their third in succession in continental competition, their longest losing sequence in the Challenge Cup.
But Nicolas Godignon's men know they can recover from their place at the foot of the table and keep alive their quarter-final hopes with a victory on home turf.
Match Facts
- Despite being familiar with each other domestically, these two sides have never met in the Challenge Cup.
- Brive have lost their last three games in the tournament, however they won their previous five before that; their three consecutive losses is their worst losing run in the Challenge Cup.
- Oyonnax lost on their last Challenge Cup outing against Gloucester, but have never lost two in a row in the tournament before.
- In the last round of Challenge Cup fixtures, Brive’s Anderson Neisen, Andrew Mailei and Malakai Bakaniceva made three clean breaks each; only three players in the whole competition made more in round two.
Les Oyonnaxiens
Oyonnax wing Dug Codjo struck six minutes from time to settle this robust French derby at Brive and earn the visitors a 30-22 triumph.
Hosts Brive, without a win in this season’s competition, hit back three times during a compelling second half that also saw three players binned. However, with the scores at 23-22, Codjo escaped their grasp to strike the final blow for Oyonnax who remain second in the Pool after missing out on a bonus point.
Their captain Fabien Cibray handed his team the perfect start when he slipped through inside three minutes. Fly-half Adriaan Smit converted and added a penalty for an early 10-point lead.
Both teams had to win to maintain their challenge on Pool 5 leaders Gloucester and this was a hotly-contested clash at Stade Amedee-Domenech, but Brive, in front of their home fans, refused to lie down all night and responded through hooker Louis Acosta.
Romain Sola converted and when he cancelled out a second penalty by Smit at the start of the second half, Brive were back in it. But Oyonnax had the ability to keep Brive at arm’s length and managed to find a score when they needed it most. Smit’s replacement Arthur Aziza capitalised on a mix-up in the Brive defence to score a try that he converted himself.
However another Oyonnax replacement – Leon Power – did not have a similar impact and when he was binned, Brive responded with a try through captain Pontasi Luafutu.
Following further kicks, 14-man Brive, with prop Damien Lavergne binned, closed the gap to a point when lock Tjiuee Uanivi crashed over. But Sola missed the chance to give Brive the lead for the first time in the match when his conversion sailed wide.
And as they chased a late winner, Codjo caught them with a counter-attack to seal victory for Oyonnax.
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