Agen (AFP)

After his heavy defeat last week on his home ground against Toulon (44-25), Agen won his match against a direct contender for the maintenance, Brive, (16-10) on Saturday during the second day of the Top 14.

Christophe Laussucq, successor of Mauricio Reggiardo at the head of the formation agenaise, can blow because his team was able to react after its mistakes of the past week.

The trip to Pau for the third day can be an opportunity to confirm the progress of his team that has been serious and make the difference by taking advantage of the mistakes of his opponent.

For Brivists, high level learning is difficult. Already beaten by Pau (33-14) they concede a second defeat in two displacements and without any point.

They preferred, unsuccessfully, to snatch a miraculous victory from the mermaid rather than choosing a penalty to win the defensive bonus in this meeting where they made too many mistakes and they ended up outnumbered with the expulsion of the young Rico Buliruarua.

Next week, Brive will take his first steps at home against Clermont who, despite the absence of 10 internationals, makes an ideal start to competition, with two successes.

In this match of fear, the first period was chopped by the technical faults of two clenched formations. In this fight, there were only very few chances and the Agenais passed in the lead thanks to two penalties of Raphael Lagarde (6-3, 29th).

The Agenais also suffered a blow with the knee injury of the back Mathieu Lamoulie just after the siren.

At the restart, the match opened for a few minutes. Mixed half Paul Abadie infiltrated and scored the first try (13-3, 43). Scotsman Alex Dunbar responded immediately (13-10, 48th). He thus scored his first achievement in the Top 14, it was insufficient.

© 2019 AFP