John Fletcher made a number of changes to the team which won in Valladolid last weekend, with Tom May, Joe McDonnell as captain, Geoff Parling and Russell Winter all back in the starting XV, whilst for Brive, ex-Saracen Ben Johnston was in the centre with England World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson and Suka “Rhino” Hufanga on the bench.

Early penalties from Jones and Benjamin Dambielle set the tone for a dour, boot-driven evening, before Leipy unhappily arrived into the South Stand five minutes after kick-off.  However, from a Jamie Noon break, Brive won a scrum in their 22 in the tackle, but as we pressured their defence McDonnell pounced for the opening tr, Jones converting.

The visitors missed two penalties to get back into the game, as Noon and the lively John Rudd made piercing runs into the Brive half which ultimately came to nothing.  Rudd in particular looked promising, taking an intercept on the left, but as he was tackled no support was available.

The brutality of the game was taking its toll on the players, with Brent Wilson and James Grindal requiring blood attention and Phil Dowson replacing Winter after only half an hour.  Brive crept back onto the scoreboard with full-back Barry Davies landing a long-range penalty, but Jones replied as both teams began to get a little aggressive.

When Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux was sin-binned in injury time, Jones booted another penalty from halfway to give us a ten-point lead, which despite Brive looking dangerous in the left corner, lasted until the break.

Dambielle and replacement Maxime Petitjean’s early penalties in the second half reduced their deficit to a hairy four points, but it didn’t last long as Ollie Phillips made a great crossfield run to the left corner, and with the only option, Rudd, covered by a defender, he was tackled before getting to the line.

As we brought the ball infield, referee Peter Allan gave the Falcons a penalty which Jones kicked easily.  With Ben Woods and Jon Golding now on for Andy Perry and Joe McDonnell, and Dowson in the sin-bin for a high tackle, Brive attacked and on the hour Ryno van der Merwe sniped in for a close-range try under the posts.  After what seemed like ages (especially since a lot of people didn’t who what was going on!), the score was given and with the conversion the score was level at 19-19.

Brive, looking for their first win at Kingston Park, attempted an audacious 60m penalty attempt moments after the try, but the kick missed the target, and after a break saw Phillips ignored on the right, Jones scored his fifth penalty, the ball just creeping over the bar.

Jones missed his only place kick of the night with barely five minutes to play, a long range effort on the right which wasn’t too far away, and we could have put the game to bed when replacement Tim Visser had May on the inside but the pass went just too high.  The situation was rescued and Andy Long almost went over on the left, and after a few phases it looked to me like the ball was grounded for a match-winning try!

However, the referee was told by his TV assistant that the Falcons had been held up, and from the scrum May was fed in front of the posts to drop a goal, sealing the win.  We caught the kick-off, and at the next stoppage the referee blew for full time.

It wasn’t exhilarating, it wasn’t pretty, but it was enough, and with nine points to Brive’s five and Connacht and El Salvador still pointless, though still to play each other today, we are in a decent position after two games.

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