Brive late show stuns Montpellier

Brive kept alive their chances of making the play-offs when they claimed a thrilling 28-25 win over Montpellier at Stade Amédée Domenech on Sunday.

In a topsy-turvy encounter, in which the lead changed hands on several occasions, Montpellier thought they had won the match after Bismarck du Plessis scored a try five minutes before full-time but Brive secured the result thanks to a try in injury time from Sevenaia Galala.

Germain slotted two penalties which gave his side a 6-0 lead inside the first 20 minutes but Montpellier struck back via an Alexandre Dumoulin try in the 27th minute after Joe Tomane and Akapusi Qera did well in the build-up.

Five minutes later, Germain added his third penalty before Montpellier suffered a setback in the 33rd minute when Paul Willemse was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle Guillaume Ribes.

Germain extended the home side's lead when he kicked the resulting penalty but Montpellier replied with two three-pointers from the kicking tee which meant Brive led 12-11 at half-time.

Five minutes after the restart, Montpellier took the lead when Timoci Nagusa scored their try, which Steyn converted but Germain narrowed the gap when he kicked his fifth penalty in the 50th minute before the visitors were reduced to 14 men again when Yvan Reilhac was yellow carded for a cynical foul on defence.

Germain kept the scoreboard ticking for the hosts when he slotted his sixth penalty which meant the game was now evenly poised at 18-18 and 15 minutes later, he added another penalty to give his side the lead.

Montpellier upped the ante on attack and were rewarded in the 75th minute when Du Plessis barged over from close quarters but Brive did not surrender when Galala scored the matchwinning try in the game's dying moments.

The scorers:

For Brive:
Try: Galala
Con: Germain
Pens: Germain 7

For Montpellier:
Tries: Dumoulin, Nagusa, B du Plessis
Cons: Steyn, W du Plessis
Pens: Steyn 2
Yellow Cards: Reilhac, Willemse

Brive: 15 Gaetan Germain, 14 Benjamin Lapeyre, 13 Arnaud Mignardi, 12 Sevenaia Galala, 11 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 10 Matthieu Ugalde, 9 Teddy Iribaren, 8 Fabien Sanconnie, 7 Dominiko Waqaniburotu, 6 Said Hireche, 5 Johan Snyman, 4 Julien Ledevedec, 3 Damien Jourdain, 2 Guillaume Ribes, 1 Karlen
Asieshvili 
Replacements: 16 Francois Da Ros, 17 Vivien Devisme, 18 Jan Uys, 19 Poutasi Luafutu, 20 Jean-Baptiste Pejoine, 21 Thomas Laranjeira, 22 Benito Masilevu, 23 Soso Bekoshvili

Montpellier: 15 Benjamin Fall, 14 Timoci Nagusa, 13 Yvan Reilhac, 12 Alexandre Dumoulin, 11 Joseph Tomane, 10 Francois Steyn, 9 Benoit Paillaugue, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Paul Willemse, 4 Jacques Du Plessis, 3 Antoine Guillamon, 2 Bismarck Du Plessis, 1 Yvan Watremez 
Replacements: 16 Romain Ruffenach, 17 Gregory Fichten, 18 Antoine Battut, 19 Kelian Galletier, 20 Nic White, 21 Willie du Plessis, 22 Nemani Nadolo, 23 Gagi Bazadze

Referee: Pierre Brousset
Assistant Referees: Jonathan Dufort, Eric Soulan
TMO: Cédric Marchat