Brive-la-Gaillarde (AFP)

Always so good-looking these Brivists!

The CAB confirmed its good pass by struggling to overcome a diminished Toulon team (25-23) after a bitter fight on Saturday on the occasion of the 15th day of Top 14.

Thanks to this success, their third consecutive which owes a lot to his pair of Fijians Setareki Bituniyata and Eneriko Buliruarua, Brive is taking a big step towards maintaining it with now twelve points ahead of the Montpellier barrage.

The RCT, deprived of its internationals and with a new-look hinge, played yoyo in terms of the score but surely missed the penalty of the win three minutes from the end by Sonatane Takulua, yet well placed 25 meters slightly offset on the left, while his team had been outnumbered for more than twenty minutes.

Too bad for Patrice Collazo's men, much less efficient far from Mayol this season, who fell this Saturday on starving people, in solidarity, who wanted a little more than them.

Proof of this is their numerically failed start with a yellow card distributed to Axel Muller (2nd), but paradoxically successful at the level of the mark with two penalties from Enzo Hervé and above all this test in first hand after scrum with a winning breakthrough from Bituniyata for his compatriot Buliruarua (11-0, 19th).

The Var were quick to react and on a penalty, the colossus Eben Estebeth rewarded his people in force by turning around skillfully (21st).

A flash in the pan as the local influence was significant in this first act with the Fijian duo still maneuvering to free up space this time for Joris Durand (19-13, 40th).

On resumption, the Toulonnais tried to react but they fell on an aggressive defense.

Worse, their indiscipline, materialized by this red card sent to Duncan Paia'aua for a dangerous tackle (53rd), allowed Hervé to widen the gap (25-13).

But this lead melted in front of the power of the visitors who found themselves on the balloons carried and by sending the incoming Beka Gigashvili behind the line (25-23, 67th).

The tension then mounted a notch at the Stadium in an indecisive end of the match marked by two missed penalties by Hervé, from afar (72nd), and Takulua, up close (77th), and by some bickering after the siren.

© 2021 AFP