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With the business end of the season in Pro D2 upon us, Thursday night’s meeting between Colomiers Rugby and CA Brive carries plenty of intrigue, with plenty on the line at Stade Michel Bendichou, particularly for the visitors.
While nominally 6th plays 2nd in a battle of current Barragistes, the 17-point margin between the two teams perhaps tells a truer story of respective seasons so far.
Colomiers have pieced together a superb campaign underlined by staggering away form, whereas heavyweights Brive have struggled to create any winning run of note. 11 wins from 22 games is not the sort of return expected from a playing squad with so much talent.
Behind the scenes, it’s been pretty tumultuous. Coaching instability has lingered over the Corrèze club for much of the season, and earlier this week club president Thierry Blandinières was keen to press that significant moves are being made to announce a new head coach very soon. Reports in France suggest Grégory Patat is currently the leading candidate to take over the role, following his departure from Bayonne, with former Grenoble & Lyon head coach Fabien Gengenbacher also linked.
The relative form of each side would suggest that this shouldn’t be a close-run thing, but there may be a glimmer of hope for a Brive team that hasn’t won away from the Stade Amédée-Domenech since their first trip on the road to Dax, way back in September.
Colomiers have struggled at home when up against some of the league’s heavyweights, who brought big budgets and bruising forward packs to match. Brive definitely have both. Back-to-back home defeats to Vannes and Provence back in the Autumn exemplified this, whilst a 1-point win in January over Oyonnax was a game they almost certainly should have lost.
The pressure though, is still undoubtedly on the visitors. With 7th-placed Agen at home to struggling Carcassonne, a loss for Brive would likely see them move out of the play-off places, and their fate at least temporarily out of their hands with seven rounds to play.
Brive’s selection certainly suggests they will lean into their forward heft. Courtney Lawes returns alongside Yann Peysson, bringing oodles of international quality to a pack that on paper still looks one of the strongest in the league. The back-row battle, against Colomiers’ Grégoire Bazin, former Australian international Caleb Timu, and the ever exceptional Luka Plataret, will be fascinating.
Second row Anthony Coletta faces his former club after captaining Colomiers last season. Coletta was one of the standout performers when Brive defeated Colomiers in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign, and the lock will no doubt relish the opportunity to do the double over his former side.
In the backs, John Cooney and Curwin Bosch are notable absentees, with Mathis Galthié starting at scrum-half and Stuart Olding at fullback. Jamie Shillcock - the former Leicester man, and England A flyhalf only last year - made Midi Olympique’s team of the week in the last round, and starts at 10 here.
The visitors’ team selection also reflects another subplot surrounding the game: the ongoing JIFF quota battle within the league. Brive entered the week as the only side in Pro D2 currently sitting around the minimum threshold, with 353 JIFF selections compared to the required target of 352.
Their match-day squad for Thursday appears to prioritise immediate results over that long-term average. Eight non-JIFF players start the match, with nine included in the 23 overall, leaving just 14 JIFF players in the squad and temporarily dipping their season average below the target mark. If this remains the case at the end of the season, they would enter next season with 6 point penalty deduction.
In contrast, Colomiers remain one of the competition’s strongest performers on the homegrown front. They currently hold the second-highest JIFF average in the league, with 412 selections across the season and an average of 18.74 per match. Eighteen of the 23 players selected for this fixture qualify as JIFF, including twelve in the starting line-up.
From a purely rugby perspective, Colomiers appear close to full strength. The only notable absences come are due to international window, with Rodrigo Marta, Vincent Pinto and Nicolas Martins away with Portugal, while Pablo Dimcheff is involved with Italy.
Elsewhere, the hosts welcome back several key players. Théo Giral shifts to fullback with Valentin Delpy returning from another stint with his parent club Toulouse to start at flyhalf. Ray Nu’u - surely a candidate for player of the season - is back in the midfield after a couple of weeks out. In the pack the return of La Rochelle-bound Thomas Adelaide brings extra ballast, and his tussle with Coletta, 13 years his senior, will be a cracker.
A rare away win here could be just the tonic Brive fans need to believe that last year’s play-off heartbreak could still be avenged this season, but hopes do seem to be dwindling. They certainly have the quality to pull it off, but not many sides have got much change from Colomiers this season. For the home side, a win would put a home semi-final well within their grasp, something few would begrudge given their outstanding performances to date.
Best of the Rest
Vannes travel to the only other side unbeaten at home this season, Valence-Romans, with the possibility that a win makes their barrage spot mathematically secure, not that their position atop the table looks to be being challenged any time soon. Just down the road in Isère, Grenoble will be hoping to keep their faint play-off hopes alive with a win over Soyaux-Angoulême.
Biarritz are very much in the relegation mire and face another stern test at home against a Provence side smarting from two successive defeats. Provence will be without Guillaume Piazolli, who has received a 19-week ban for a horrendous knee drop on Dax flyhalf Romuald Séguy, following his earlier 10-week ban for a red card against tonight’s opposition back in September.
Pro D2 continues this Thursday (5th March) with Colomiers v Brive, available to UK & Ireland viewers for free via FRUK Rugby on YouTube.