Biarritz Olympic beat the weather and Brive to claim their place in the Amlin Challenge Cup Final at the Stoop on Friday 18 May 2012 against Toulon. The game will be live on SkySorts1 from 19:30 in the UK.
The game was not pretty, but given the torrential rain it was never going to be. Biarritz have some big name players and today they stood tall as the Basque team ran out to 13-0 at half time, thanks to the boot of Yachvili yet again. Damien Traille scored a try but it was done thanks to his height as he gathered a kick over the line and dotted down.
The second half and Biarritz continued to control the game but were unable to build the phases to gain another try. They did extend their lead on 67 minutes with another penalty from the boot of that man Yachvili, then three minutes later he posted another kick, the last score of this rain sodden hard battle. The last few minutes and with everything lost you would think that Brive would play out the clock and prepare to fight for Top 14 survival, but not their number three Alexandre Barozzi who decided to knee and then throw a punch which saw him red carded and a nasty end to the game.
Final score: Biarritz 19-0 Brive.
Scorers
Biarritz
Tries: D.Traille
Kicks: D. Yachvili 4 pen, 1 con
Teams
Biarritz: 15 Balshaw, 14 Ngwenya, 13 Haylett-Petty, 12 Traille(C), 11 Baby, 10 Bosch, 9 Yachvili, 8 Lakafia, 7 Gray, 6 Guyot, 5 Carizza, 4 Thion, 3 Van Staden, 2 Heguy, 1 Marconnet
Replacements: 16 August, 17 Watremez, 18 Gomez Kodela, 19 Lund, 20 Lund, 21 Peyrelongue, 22 Barraque, 23 Gimenez
Brive: 15 Atayi, 14 Cooke, 13 Swanepoel, 12 Noon, 11 Galala, 10 Belie, 9 Figuerola, 8 Claassen, 7 Forgues, 6 Azoulai(C), 5 Caisso, 4 Uys, 3 Barozzi, 2 Natriashvili, 1 Poirot
Replacements: 16 Lacombe, 17 Henn, 18 Barnard, 19 Le Devedec, 20 Mela, 21 Luafutu, 22 Geraghty, 23 Mignardi
