Montauban saw off Brive 32-24 in a Pro D2 fixture on Thursday evening, October the eighth. The result shifts the table considerably, with the hosts climbing away from the middle while Brive's perfect record finally cracks.
I watched the full ninety-plus minutes and my eye kept returning to the opening exchanges. Montauban came out with intent, and here's the thing — they didn't just survive the visitors' early pressure, they turned it.
The visitors had looked imperious through five wins, scoring freely and conceding sparingly. But by then, fatigue or complacency, you can't say which, had set in. Brive found themselves chasing territory rather than controlling it.
Montauban's recent form had been uneven — that heavy defeat to Biarritz and the drubbing at Angoulême — yet the win against Grenoble and a narrow victory over Nevers suggested something was stirring. To be fair, the coaching staff had been patient, and the players responded.
The scoreboard tells a story of two halves. The first period was cagey, both sides feeling each other out. Then Montauban extended their momentum, and Brive, who had been so clinical all season, got dragged out of position repeatedly.
When I forecasted this one, I gave home victory at seventy-two percent confidence. Not because Brive were fragile — they weren't — but because Montauban had found a way through their own inconsistency. Teams that bounce back from defeats tend to play with more urgency, and that showed.
Brive remain second on twenty-one points, but the gap to the leaders has closed. Montauban move up to thirteen points, still in the lower half but no longer writing themselves off. The table doesn't lie, but neither does the eye of someone who watches.
