Paris (AFP)

Sunday in Corrèze, it will float in the air like a smell of Pro D2. Stade Français, last of the Top 14, moves to Brive (12th) to launch his holding operation against an undefeated direct opponent at home this season.

These two are not carved in the same wood. Yet Paris, the biggest budget of the Top 14 in the midst of the existential crisis, and Brive, just promoted and 12th budget of the elite, will fight with a single target: not to go down. A first match of fear at the Sunday banquet (12:30).

Twenty-two matches that Brive did not lose at home in the league. For a first test in Top 14 as coaches, it was easier for the duo Laurent Sempere-Julien Arias, called to the rescue to restart the pink boat after the dismissal on 12 November of South African Heyneke Meyer.

So the two novices want to play down a potential defeat at Amédée-Domenech and chase the idea of ​​an already decisive match in the optics of maintenance. "If we lose to Brive, there are still a lot of matches behind (16 days), that does not mean that we will be in Pro D2. If we win, that does not mean that we are maintained", details Arias .

Moreover, "it is almost impossible to win there," says the former double winger of France with Paris and charged with Sempéré to revive the Parisian identity under the direction of another former home as managing director, Thomas Lombard.

A slogan for the Parisians: "reconstruction", "to lay the groundwork, to regain serenity and confidence", beyond the result among promucts Corréziens who have already offered the defending champion Toulouse, the finalist leaving Clermont, the current second Bordeaux-Bègles and Toulon.

Still, a defeat and Paris (14th, 9 pts) would let even more escape Brive (12th, 18 pts) in the race maintenance.

- "At home to break our mouths" -

On the Brive side, the importance of this match is more clearly displayed: "This is one of the finals we will have to play by the end of the season," said back-scorer Thomas Laranjeira. "There are some very big players in this Stade Français team, we do not have players of this quality, we are clearly the smallest, and I am sure they come to us to break our mouths".

Brive could boast of his victory a fortnight ago at the Parisians in European Challenge (27-11)? "It's anecdotal," says Laranjeira.

Gaillards Irish manager Jeremy Davidson reminds him that "last year, the Stade Français had a good season winning many away games" while this year, "they have certainly the biggest budget, but he There was especially the World Cup and they had things that did not work ", before concluding:" We do not care about their condition, we need to win, point-bar ".

© 2019 AFP