Albi have now leapt up to 10th spot, above Brive, Narbonne, Montpellier and Bayonne. They started the season well enough but then slumped. Perhaps they will now end it well.

It was below freezing point and foggy at Stade Municipal when the two teams kicked off and the cold crowd warmed in support of their struggling team.

Things looked ominous at the start when Italian international of Argentinian birth put the visitors 3-0 ahead with a penalty after just two minutes.

For the next 78 minutes Brive did not score.
 
After 15 minutes Frédéric Manca, the Ali flyhalf, levelled the scores with a penalty as Albi went on the attack.

Albi came roaring back and put huge pressure on Brive and eventually the home pack drove over for a try credited to No.8 Vincent Clément. Manca converted and Albi led 10-3 after 20 minutes. 

Manca missed another penalty but goaled his second on the stroke of half-time to make the score at the break 13-3.

The second half belonged largely to Albi but the Brive defence was brave. Despite losing first hooker Julien Campo and then flank Fabien Domingo to the sin bin, they prevented the Albigeois from scoring a single try. Only Manca's two -penalty goals added to the home side's score.

Scorers:

For Albi:
Try: Clément
Con: Manca
Pens: Manca 4

For Brive:
Pen:  Orquera

Teams:

Albi: 15 Frédéric Manca, 14 Justin Mensah-Coker, 13 Dimitri Senio, 12 Thomas Sanchou, 11 Patrice Serre,  10 André Hough,  9  Sébastien Pagès, 8 Vincent Clément, 7 Yohan  Misse, 6 Franck Maréchal, 5  Arnaud Méla, 4 Paul Guffroy, 3 Forrest Gainer, 2 Mickaël Ladhuie, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Guillaume Ribes, 17 Stéphane Delpuech, 18 Martin Gady, 19 Philippe Guicherd, 20 Stanislas Krzesinski, 21 Kevin Boulogne, 22 Paul Delvin.
 
Brive: 15 Johan Dalla Riva, 14 Farid Sid, 13 Ludovic Valbon, 12 Sébastien Bonetti, 11 Yves Donguy, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Jean-Baptiste Péjoine, 8 Vincent Forgues, 7 Fabien Domingo, 6 Simon Azoulai, 5 Mitu Petre, 4 Johan van Zyl, 3 Petrisor Toderasc, 2 Julien Campo, 1 Luke Harbut.
Replacements: 16 Amédée Domenech, 17 Simon Lemalu, 18 Charl van Rensburg, 19 Aurélien Beco, 20 Tim Clark, 21 Maxime Petitjean, 22 Terry Fanolua.
 
Referee: Frank Maciello
Touch judges: Maurice Duny, Gilbert Darrieutort
Assessor: Joël Dumé
Goal judges: Pascal Gauzere, René Roustany