A day after George North’s Provence saw their season come to a close in the Pro D2 playoffs, more British and Irish Lions in the form of Courtney Lawes and Ross Moriarty had their hopes of promotion crushed on Friday night.
But while it was the star-studded Provence that lost to league leaders Grenoble on Thursday, Friday served up a much more unexpected result, as the equally, if not more, star-laden Brive lost to the much less fancied Montauban at home.
To put into context the achievement, Montauban only just crept into sixth-place in the Pro D2, and therefore the play-offs, and finished the regular season a whole 17 points behind second-place Brive.
But Montauban ran out comfortable 13-29 winners at the Stade Amédée-Domenech despite Brive boasting the likes of Lawes, Moriarty, Argentina’s Matias Moroni and Springbok Curwin Bosch in their starting XV.
Grenoble
US Montauban
A lot of the damage was done in the first 20 minutes, where a slew of penalties from the hosts allowed Montauban to race to a 0-13 lead. Brive were able to reduce the deficit, but the boot of fly-half Jerome Bosviel – kicking his ninth drop-goal of the season and 44th of his career – ensured the visitors always held the lead before a late flourish allowed them to pull away.
A year after they finished 15th in the Pro D2 and beat Narbonne by a solitary point in the relegation ‘Access Match’ to determine who will play in France’s third division this season, they will take on Grenoble next week to see who will play in the Top 14 next season.
Even if they were to lose against Grenoble, Montauban will still have another shot at the Top 14 in the relegation play-off against the second-from-bottom in the French top tier, which, as it stands, will be against Perpignan.
