Little goes right for slack Cardiff

By PAUL REYNOLDS

Brive ……………..37

Cardiff ………… 24

CARDIFF ended the group stage on a downbeat note as defeat in Brive saw them miss out on a top-two place.

They came from 20-3 down to lead 24-23 with tries from James Botham, Rhys Priestland and Jason Harries, but Brive added two further converted scores to earn a last-16 visit to Scarlets.

Cardiff will have a home tie in the last 16, but missed the chance to host potential quarterand semi-finals. They leaked five tries in Brive having conceded only two in their first three games.

After an early Priestland penalty, little went right for lacklustre Cardiff in a first half which saw them barely fire a shot in attack. In contrast Brive enjoyed plenty of pressure with hooker Motu Matu'u rumbling over from a lineout after 11 minutes.

Full-back Mathis Ferte crossed on the overlap as they went wide from another attacking lineout before Kevin Fabien raced onto a Nicolas Sanchez grubber kick to score a third try in the opening 40 minutes.

Sanchez knocked over an easy penalty just after the break but Cardiff finally sprung into life as Botham crossed from a Rhys Carre break and Priestland went over on the blindside of a maul.

Enzo Herve kicked a simple penalty when Cardiff 's Wales squad lock Teddy Williams suffered a head injury and a yellow card at the same time after an awkward tackle.

The 14-man visitors snatched the lead with a Harries touchdown from Mason Grady's break, but their advantage did not last long. Home wing Arthur Bonneval, newly recruited from Toulouse, crossed after Fijian centres Setareke Bituniyata and Setariki Tuicuvu tore the Cardiff defence apart. Soon after, Wesley

Douglas sprinted in from Ferte's break to round off the scoring.