By Leipziger
October 26 2006

The Falcons first away European trip of the season takes them to the scene of their previous continental adventure – former European Champions Brive in France on Saturday, looking to repeat the 17-24 win at the Parc Municipal in January. Brive reached the quarter-finals as runners-up in our pool last season, but as eighth seeds faced a daunting trip to Kingsholm in the last 8 and duly departed the European Challenge Cup with a 46-13 defeat. Gloucester of course went on to win the tournament, and our black and white opponents have a strong record of losing to eventual victors – Harlequins dumped them out in the quarter-finals in 2000/01 and 2003/04, whilst after beating Leicester in the 1996/97 Heineken Cup Final they were runners-up the following season to Bath in Bordeaux. In six seasons in the European Challenge Cup, Brive have only failed once to reach the last eight, in 1999/00.

In twenty games against English opposition, Brive have an almost 50-50 record, having won nine times and lost eleven. This includes of course our victory in France in January, and a 51-19 win at Kingston Park on the first matchday of last year’s tournament when Colin Charvis (2), Jamie Noon, Matthew Burke and Tom May scored tries, back up by four conversions and six penalties by Jonny Wilkinson.

Their squad, captained from the back row by Jerome Bonvoisin, contains several names well known to English fans such as Gloucester legend Terry Fanolua, former Harlequins prop Luke Harbut, and French international backs Ludovic Valbon, who played in the Six Nations, and Sebastien Bonetti. At half back we might expect to see Australian Tims Clark and Donnelly.

Brive opened their campaign last Friday at Montauban, winning 13-26 in front of 6,000 with tries from Nicolas Couttet and Petrisor Toderasc, although neither are in the starting lineup on Saturday which is captained by Valbon:

15 Johan Dalla Riva
14 Farid Sid
13 Ludovic Valbon (captain)
12 Sukanaivalu Hufanga
11 Yves Donguy
10 Luciano Orquera
9 Tim Clark
1 Pierre-Philippe Lafond
2 Jawad Djoudi
3 Franco Pani
4 Fabien Domingo
5 Charl van Rensburg
6 Simon Azoulai
7 Hendrik Gerber
8 Damien Chouly
Replacements:
Julien Campo
Luke Harbut
Petrisor Toderasc
Johan van Zyl
Jean-Baptiste Pejoine
Maxime Petitjean
Norman Ligairi

The Falcons maintain six of the side that won at Brive in January, Matt Burke returning as captain, whilst May, Grindal, Ward, Perry and Woods also start in the Parc Municipal for the second time. The game comes too early for the injured Jonny Wilkinson, as new England squad member Toby Flood continues at fly-half. Phil Dowson and Jamie Noon are rested, and Mathew Tait has a thigh injury.

15 Matthew Burke (captain)
14 John Rudd
13 Tom May
12 Joe Shaw
11 Tim Visser
10 Toby Flood
9 James Grindal
1 Johnny Williams
2 Matt Thompson
3 Micky Ward
4 Andy Perry
5 Mike McCarthy
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Andy Buist
Replacements:
Robbie Morris
Andy Long
Jon Golding
James Hoyle
Sean Tomes
Lee Dickson
Ollie Phillips