Brive - Day 4 - January 21st

Day 4

Match day today.  No time for breakfast as we had to get to the Stadium to buy our tickets for this afternoons match before getting to a bar somewhere in town where our lunch had been arranged with the Brive Supporters club

We had an interesting walk along the river where there was much ice flowing along.  The temperature was around minus 5 degrees

Icy

We arrived at the ground just as the ticket office opened and bought our tickets  and while we were looking at a replica of the Heinekin Cup we were approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as the outgoing president of Brive RFC. When he discovered we had travelled all the way from Newport, he took us upstairs to the players lounge and press room and organised coffee for us. Gradually other people were making their way over to us to shake our hands and to make us feel most welcome.

Jean Jacques Bertrand, the outgoing President of Brive L:a Gaillarde RFC

After our short stop here we headed back to the hotel to get a taxi to the Bar Gaillard St Martin where a host of us were to meet up with the local supporters club for a three course lunch before the game. It was a great lunchtime spent with good friendly hosts enjoying local food and wines, but it was not long before we had to get in our taxis and head to the game, but not before we all  agreed to meet back at the bar after the  game.

These shots are of lunchtime at the restaurant

At the ground, it was not full but still a good crowd and they were all very frienfly towards us and we only just made it in time for kick off.

Unfortunately, we lost but we did compete for 60 minutes but they were just too strong for us in the end. We were just out powered up front and ran out of steam.  So no chance of reaching the semi final for a third consecutive season, we'll just have to go for it again next year.

After the game Tom and I walked into town and we went for something to eat in the Shamrock bar before going for more punishment up at the Gaillarde St Martin.  When we got there it was pretty full.

After a couple of hours of 'enjoying' ourselves we got a taxi back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar with a couple of the guys who had gone back and eventually retired for the evening.