Struggling Stade earn crucial win
Stade have had a terrible start to the season and came into the match in 11th place after winning just five of their opening 13 matches.
But the win over sixth-placed Brive means the Parisians can still dream of back-to-back titles, although they still have another 10 points to make up with 12 matches left.
The gravity of their situation was reflected in coach Gonzalo Quesada's team selection, and it was the influence of a number of internationals, such as Italy captain Sergio Parisse and France's Rabah Slimani, Jonathan Danty and Jules Plisson, that ultimately allowed the champions to prevail, having trailed 6-12 at half-time.
"In the first half we had problems in the line-out and in the scrum. We spent the first half defending. When you spend 40 minutes defending, inevitably you make mistakes. Thankfully in the second half the entrance of Slimani helped us because it sorted out the scrum, that of Laurent Panis sorted out the line-out.
"That allowed us to play behind it and capitalise on the different dynamic," Quesada said.
The action was slow to get going as Brive proved tough competitors and twice took the lead through a Gaetan Germain penalty, with Springbok Morne Steyn replying for Stade in between. The hosts were struggling to get anywhere near Brive's 22 and Stade's task became even tougher when Samoan prop Sakaria Taulafo was sent to the sin-bin for dangerous rucking.
Almost immediately, Brive seemed to have capitalised as Georgian prop Karlen Asieshvili plunged over the line after the visiting pack had made ground on a driving maul but referee Alexandre Ruiz decided to take a look at the television replay and spotted a slight knock-on by Asieshvili, as he went to grab the ball.
It didn't take long for Brive to extend their advantage, though, as Germain notched his third penalty from three attempts. Just before half-time, Brive blew another golden scoring opportunity as Sevanaia Galala somehow knocked on close to the line after being put clean through by Alfi Mafi, who had broken the gainline, and was seemingly set to score under the posts.
Brive forced a penalty against the head from the resulting scrum and Germain punished Stade again. But just before the break, the hosts recovered their kick-off and earned a penalty themselves that Steyn converted.
Stade started to bring on their big-gun internationals in the second period and soon got on the scoreboard as Steyn added a third penalty before Germain missed his first. But a break down the right from Australian Mafi helped set up the opening try of the match.
Brive spread the ball to the left where they had an overlap. Galala tried to play a miss-pass but Stade wing Jeremy Sinzelle was in the way. However, he dropped the ball and Guillaume Namy picked it up off the bounce to run down the left touchline to score in the corner.
Even so, the tide had turned and Stade were dominating. A strong break down the left resulted in Brive No.8 Fabien Sanconnie being sin-binned for preventing the ball from coming out at a ruck, and Stade opted for the scrum close to the posts.
It proved a wise move as Djibril Camara exploited space wide out left to score in the corner from Fijian centre Waisea Nayacalevu's pass. Parisse made the initial break on 63 minutes for Stade to play the ball through the hands out to right wing Sinzelle to score in the corner, making up for his earlier mistake.
The pressure proved too much for Brive and Namy was yellow-carded before Steyn and then Plisson both knocked over penalties. Danty had the final word with a try four minutes from time but Stade came up short in their bid for a bonus point.
Top 14 table:
(played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, penalties, total points)
Racing 92 13 10 1 2 270 225 1 43
Toulouse 13 9 0 4 363 176 7 43
Toulon 14 8 0 6 416 272 9 41
Clermont 13 7 1 5 340 234 9 39
Bordeaux-Begles 14 8 1 5 290 265 3 37
Brive 14 8 0 6 269 243 4 36
Montpellier 13 8 0 5 332 318 4 36
Castres 13 7 0 6 294 273 5 33
Grenoble 13 6 0 7 323 343 4 28
Stade Francais 14 6 0 8 277 302 2 26
La Rochelle 13 5 0 8 264 301 6 26
Pau 13 4 1 8 207 370 2 20
Oyonnax 13 3 0 10 220 411 2 14
Agen 13 2 0 11 259 391 2 10
Agence France-Presse
