Border Telegraph | Sport | Tension until final whistle

Wednesday, 1st October, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 14th December, 2005 11:18

Tension until final whistle

By Border Telegraph Sport

Border Reivers 25, Brive 22

BORDERS Reivers made life difficult for themselves before scoring their second win in the European Challenge Cup before a disappointing crowd of only 1050 at Netherdale on Sunday.

Borderers again gave the thumbs down to Sunday rugby, and those who stayed away witnessed an absorbing, tense game, which hung by a thread as it went into overtime.

Reivers spent an anxious final five minutes of injury time as Brive pressed for a winning score after the Borderers missed no fewer than six kicks at goal, five penalties and a conversion, to put the game out of reach.

In the end, Gregor Townsend, making his return to the side after being out injured for three months, kicked two penalties in the final three minutes to ensure that Martin Bottini’s injury time try came too late for the French.

“Overall I was pleased with the performance and delighted with the result,” said assistant coach George Graham.

“I think we can take a lot of positives from the game and look forward to the game in France next week.

“We wanted to increase the pace after the interval and we did just that.”

The Borderers scrummaged well, were effective at the line-out and ran effectively at a French side which refused to buckle despite being on the back foot for spells.

The Reivers should have scored more, and it would have been an injustice if Brive had snatched it at the end.

The performances of Simon Danielli and Nikki Walker would have pleased the coaches while stand-in scrum half, Brendan McKerchar, did all that was expected of him.

In the forwards, Kelly Brown collected the Man-of-the-Match award for a storming display, which will make it difficult to leave him out, as well as Andy Miller and Andy Rennick.

Reivers showed no respect for their French opponents as they took the game to the visitors. Only an out-of-form Gary Law kept the scores level, the centre missing two penalties from 22 and then 45 metres, and followed it with a third as his kick came back of the post.

But Reivers counted the cost for their misses when, against the run of play, Brive took the lead in 19 minutes. With breath-taking pace, they opened up the Reivers defence and full back Johan Dalla Riva sent Bottini over for a try.

The Reivers response was swift, and from a Townsend kick to the left-hand corner, and quick ball from a line-out Miller stretched over the line.

Law, after his early misses, converted from the touchline to give Reivers the lead.

And Reivers stretched their lead in injury time when Townsend sent Law through a gap for his side’s second try and a 12-5 interval lead.

The French were reduced to 14 men when hooker Julien Campo was sin-binned for repeated infringements, but Reivers failed to capitalise as Law pulled his kick wide.

However, in 48 minutes, with the French exposed, Stuart Moffat had space to go over the line. A change of kicker saw Townsend add the goal points from the right touchline.

Brive countered immediately, Dalla Riva bursting through a gap and Maxime Petitjean converted to narrow the gap to seven points again.

Townsend was next to miss a penalty and within a few minutes Brive were back in contention when replacement Tuniufai Tavalea touched down.

It was a nervy finale as Townsend kicked two penalties in the final three minutes before Bottini broke free to score deep into injury time…too late to deny the Reivers, but too close for comfort.

Border Reivers – S. Moffat; S. Danielli, B. MacDougall, G. Law and N. Walker; G. Townsend and B.McKerchar; T. McGee, R. Ford, B. Douglas, S. MacLeod, O. Palepoi, A. Rennick, K. Brown and A. Miller. Subs used: C. MacRae, C. Stewart, S. Scott, M. Parr, J. Dalziel.

Brive – J. Dalla-Riva; C. Platek, C. Leite, C. Mariennal and M. Bottini; M. Petitjean and J. B. Pejoine; D. Rodriguez, J. Campo, F. Pani, D. Drozdz, Y. Manhes, A. Maleyrie, D. Chouly and F. Laurent. Subs used – S. Chinnaro, T. Tavalea, Y. Sadourney, H. Domenech, J. B. Pejoine.

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