Brave Falcons lose brutal Brive battle

 The Falcons played their part in an absolutely absorbing match in Brive last night but were eventually beaten by the French hosts 23-16, the bonus point and restricting Brive to two tries providing some consolation.

In a match where the lead changed hands regularly, it was the home side who were celebrating the four points at the end of a brutal encounter.

The Falcons named a more recognisable side than the one that won in Bucharest last week but were forced into a late change with Sean Brown replacing Alex Tait in the starting XV. Noah Cato moved to full-back and Kieran Brookes was drafted onto the bench. Warren Fury captained the team from scrum-half and there were starts for Phil Godman, Scott Wilson and Fraser McKenzie, while Scott Lawson made a Falcons debut.

Brive’s backs showed their pace in the early stages with some slick movement and the Frenchmen went ahead with a penalty from Thomas Laranjeira, who missed his second effort soon after from long range, though it was accuracy not distance that let the centre down.

The Falcons settled into the match and Cato acquitted himself well in the number fifteen shirt, while James Fitzpatrick and Dom Barrow were used to good effect to punch into the Brive defence. From a series of penalties that saw Simon Pinet sin-binned, the Falcons drove towards the line and Lawson marked his Newcastle bow with a score on the left. Godman was unable to convert.

Brive looked to have hit back almost immediately when Venione Voretamaya caught a crossfield kick on the far left and outwitted Brown to score, however after one of many seemingly-endless consultations with his TMO the referee chalked the try off for offside. As if the Brive crowd, already driven by a band and a number of drummers, needed any more incentive to make a massive racket, they greeted the decision with howls and whistles.

Laranjeira did return his team into the lead with a simple penalty, and then took a pass from the storming Voretamaya to score just before half-time, Brive having stolen possession upfield. The scoring pass looked suspiciously forward, but the for once referee saw no need to go to upstairs and gave the score that Laranjeira converted himself.

Brive led 13-5 at half-time, but the Falcons did not lay down and continued to perform well in the second period. Ryan Shortland outpaced the home defence to score the Falcons’ second try on the left, with Godman again missing the conversion, but the Scottish fly-half put the Falcons ahead with two penalties coming up to the hour. A man up after a yellow card for Fabien Laurent, and three points up with the crowd relatively subdued, things were looking up for the Falcons.

However, things began to go wrong with replacement Oliver Tomaszczyk adding a light shove to a block on a dribbling runner, and with the home fans baying for blood, the referee decided after another TV consultation to give the prop a yellow card.

Tomaszczyk was added to the Brive fans’ hit list that also included Lawson, who had previously been the focus of the cameras as the officials sought something from the TMO, but in the end the hooker went unpunished, if he had ever erred in the first place.

Laranjeira equalised with the penalty that came from Tomaszczyk’s card, and the Falcons lost Shortland to injury and Dom Barrow temporarily as Kieran Brookes was brought on for scrums.

Godman missed a penalty to put the Falcons ahead but the true heartstopping moment came when Sean Tomes raced onto the last defender and offloading a scoring pass to Chris York. Unfortunately, the whistle had gone for a forward pass before York crossed the line, taking the travelling Geordie fans from ecstacy to disillusionment in seconds.

The next try came from Voretamaya who managed to stay infield and fight through the Falcons defence. Laranjeira knocked over the conversion but missed a further penalty that would have taken Brive out of bonus point range, meaning that although the Falcons’ late efforts to force a draw were ultimately in vain, it means that the gap at the top of Pool 3 is just one point.

Brive sit on six points ahead of Bucharest and the Falcons on five, with all to play for.