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The Saint Barths came to Bruc with a virtually full squad, buoyed by their victory over the 2024 champions, Good Luck. Their ambitions may have been high, but they were quickly extinguished, notably by the speed of the Abymian three-quarters. However, after a fairly even contest between the two teams in the first quarter of an hour, a power cut suspended the start of the match, plunging the Valentin Claire complex into darkness. Fair-play, and having come to Guadeloupe to play rugby, the Barracudas didn't take advantage of this incident to lodge a complaint with the refereeing body, asking for the match to be postponed or even cancelled. The players on the pitch preferred to rely on the technical team to solve the lighting problem. And rightly so, as in less than 30 minutes, the match can be restarted. And while the problem did somewhat break the rhythm of the match, it also "broke" the legs of the Barracudas, who suffered the onslaught of the home side, eventually conceding two tries in the second half. Unconverted tries from Brive's Pierre Bochinger and Tanguy Beaud, plus a penalty from Vincent Lamonzi, brought the score to 13-0 in favor of Le Bruc at half-time.
The second half got off to a slightly better start for the Saint Barths, who defended their goal to avoid conceding another try, synonymous with an attacking bonus for the home side. However, they were still at fault and had to take 4 penalties, all of which were scored by Rémi Brosse. Only Romain Viriato managed to score the Barras' only points with his foot, and with fifteen minutes to go, the score was 22-3. Just enough time for Brive's Hugues Beaud to take advantage of a turnover to plant a last try in a hurry and close the match on 27-3 in favor of Le Bruc.
It was a crushing defeat, which annoyed Gauthier Perriguet, coach of the Barracudas forwards: "We were beaten in the duels for most of the game, and we weren't as convincing in the halted phases as we usually are, and with the ball we didn't always make the right choices, so obviously we're disappointed. Did we regain our form in the second half? I think it's due to the fact that the opposition dropped down a notch. Once they knew they were going to win the game, the Brucists were perhaps less diligent. In any case, we need to work a lot harder, that's for sure! "
However, this result does not call into question a potential qualification for the play-offs, but that's not what interests our third row, Valentin Lalo: "The season is still long, this is only our 2nd game of the season, so we still have a lot of things to sort out if we are to perform well. We mustn't forget that with the ten or so departures in the off-season, we're a team in the process of rebuilding. After that, we came up against a very fine Bruc team. I've rarely seen them so complete in my memory, and even on the bench they've got quality, as we saw today. "Indeed, the Abymiens recited their rugby at home on Saturday evening, as Bruc's first center Remi Brosse points out: "We played well, stayed focused and that enabled us to set the pace throughout the game. It may sound a bit clumsy, but we're taking it one game at a time, and we're not getting carried away. We can't wait for the return phase, when we'll be taking on new challenges! "Taking up new challenges and, in the first instance, lifting their heads is the key to the next stage of the Baracudas' season. For the moment, they are capitalizing, with a win over the reigning champions and a defeat against the runners-up and current leader in the standings - nothing to be alarmed about. Receiving the Archiballs of Saint Martin and RC Goyave in Saint Jean on February 1 and 15 will not be enough to bring the Barracudas up to the level they are aiming for.
