Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Top 14 2020/21 club-by-club season preview: Brive

(Photo by Thierry Suire/AFP via Getty Images)

Brive put more than one Top 14 big gun to shame on their return to the top flight after a one-campaign spell in the Pro D2. Here’s why we can expect Fortress Amedee Domenech to be even stronger this season.

ADVERTISEMENT

Key signing

Italian Pietro Ceccarelli is a smart catch from Edinburgh. At 28, he is the oldest of the club’s five new arrivals. A mention, too, for Samoan lock Brandon Nansen, joining after two injury-plagued seasons at Dragons and looking for better times. The new names prove one key thing – it’s evolution, not a revolution that head coach Jeremy Davidson is plotting.

Key departure

Joe Snyman: A long-running injury forced the 33-year-old South African lock to call time on his career in December, a couple of years earlier than he – and, no doubt, the club – would have hoped.

Video Spacer

England forward Courtney Lawes guests on All Access, the RugbyPass interview series hosted by Jim Hamilton

Video Spacer

England forward Courtney Lawes guests on All Access, the RugbyPass interview series hosted by Jim Hamilton

They say

“Our policy is primarily to trust young people. We want to give them the opportunity, so we haven’t recruited much. Overall, we have continued to rejuvenate the workforce – the rest of the group is maturing. Above all, they are attentive, motivated and enthusiastic.”

– Coach Jeremy Davidson, Rugbyrama

We say

Brive were eleventh in the Top 14, level on points with Bayonne and Castres, and out of Europe when last season came to a pandemic-induced early end. But don’t be fooled – there is plenty to be optimistic about after a solid return to the Top 14 following a season in the Pro D2.

Without the star names of other sides in the French top flight, Brive bettered Clermont, Toulon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Pau, and Stade Francais at Stade Amedee Domenech and, frankly, looked good doing it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The targeted recruitments of Ceccarelli, Florian Dufour, Valentin Tirefort, Wesley Douglas and Setariki Tuicuvu bring a touch of freshness, but Brive are building carefully, cannily and slowly around a cohort of young players.

Mix of youth and experience

Make no mistake though, despite their self-proclaimed accent on youth, there is plenty of experience in Brive’s ranks. Thomas Laranjeira, at 28, is a natural-born leader – as is captain Said Hireche. He may be 35 now, but he has signed on for one more year of hitting rucks and mauls like a 20-year-old. It will be a bittersweet day in the Correze when the hugely and justifiably popular Hireche finally hangs up his boots – hopefully, to the ringing applause of the fans that he deserves.

Brive don’t have the riches of many of the clubs they face on a weekly basis and after the obligatory post-promotion season of survival, they will be looking for the obligatory second-season consolidation performance.

ADVERTISEMENT

They aren’t likely to trouble the very top of the table next season and, in spite of their coach’s clear and present ambitions, they wouldn’t expect to. But more wins under their belt and a higher finish – that is the very least Brive deserve.

Arrivals

Pietro Ceccarelli, Florian Dufour, Brandon Nansen, Wesley Douglas, Valentin Tirefort, Setariki Tuicuvu

Departures

James Johnston, Karlen Asieshvili, Francois da Ros, Joe Snyman, Dan Malafosse, Richard Fourcade, Jan Uys, Alex Dunbar, Franck Romanet, Guillaume Namy, Rory Scholes

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

H
Hellhound 45 minutes ago
South Africa player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.


Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.


Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.


They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.


Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.


Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen

4 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

No where to be seen OB!


The crosses for me for the year where (from memory);


This was a really hard one to nail down as the first sign of a problem, now that I've asked myself to think about it. I'd say it all started with his decision to not back form and fit players after all the injuries, and/or him picking players for the future, rather ones that could play right now.


First he doesn't replace Perofeta straight away (goes on for months in the team) after injury against England, second he falls back to Beauden Barrett to cover at fullback against Fiji, then he drops Narawa the obvious choice to have started, then he brings in Jordan too soon. That Barret selection (and to a lesser extent Bell's) set the tone for the year.


Then he didn't get the side up for Argentina. They were blown away and didn't look like they expected a fight and were well beaten despite the scoreline in my opinion. Worst performance of the year in the forth game and..


Basically the same problems were persistent, or even exaggerated, after that with the players he did select not given much of an opportunity, with this year having the most number of unused subs I can remember since the amateur days.


What I think I started to realise early on was that he didn't back himself and his team. I think he prepared the players well, don't get me wrong, but I'll credit him with making a conscious choice in tempering his ambition and instead choosing cohesion and to respect (the idea of it being important in himself and his players) experience first and foremost (after two tight games and that 4th game loss). I think he chose wrong in deciding not to be, and back, himself. Hard criticism.


And it played out by preferring Beauden to Dmac on the EOYT (though that may have been a planned move).


I hope I'm right, because going through all the little things of the season and coming up with these bullets, I've got to wonder when I say his last fault is one we have seen at the Crusaders, playing his best players into the ground. What I'm really scared of now is that not wanting a bit of freshness in this last game could be linked with all these other crosses that I want to put down to simple confidence issues. But are they really a sign that he just lacks vision?


Now, that's not to say I haven't seen a lot of positives as well, I just think that for the ABs to go where they want to go he has to fix these crosses. Just have difficult that will be is the question.

24 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING ‘Right a few wrongs’: Ex-Wales flyer’s message of intent with Crusaders ‘Right a few wrongs’: Ex-Wales flyer’s message of intent with Saders
Search