This was not so much a rumble in the Rhondda as a peace pact in Pontypridd. After the sourness of their match a fortnight earlier, this pulsating meeting had taught the European champions a lesson. Namely that a lack of sly punches, gouges, and head butts does not emasculate the game of rugby union. As Dennis John the Pontypridd coach, said: "Brive are a very capable side, strong, well organised. They can play the game two ways. There's no reason why they can't win this trophy again." Pontypridd, too, can play marvellous uninhibited rugby. On Saturday they outscored Brive by three tries to one, Gareth Wyatt, Dafydd James and Geraint Lewis, their young jet-heeled three-quarters, out-sprinting the French backs to touch down. Kevin Morgan, a full-back who looks too fresh-faced and innocent for this kind of company, was ice-cool beneath the high ball.

The game ended with Pontypridd pounding away at the Brive line and the French were grateful to Christoph La Maison's peerless kicking. Pontypridd handled themselves well on the pitch as well as off, where a charm offensive guaranteed that a huge influx of journalists from England and France were disabused of any notion that this gateway to the Rhondda was, to paraphrase Brive's coach Laurent Seigne, a land of "semi-civilised" barbarians.

But the Welsh champions, will almost certainly miss out on the £50,000 a quarter-final appearance would have provided, and a sense of injustice rankles at Sardis Road. They were narrowly beaten by Bath and at Brive by disputed tries. And even here there was a hint that the ball was nudged forward as Brive's hooker Laurent Travers scored their only try.

Irish referee Gordon Black ensured that the lid was never allowed pop off a game that could have boiled over. "Despite the warm reception we had we will never forget what happened two weeks ago," said La Maison, one of the players hurt in the bar-room brawl that disfigured his and rugby's face after the game in Brive.