A fine kicking performance by French scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili saw Biarritz to a 19-0 victory over 1997 European Cup winners Brive in their Amlin Challenge Cup semifinal on Saturday.

Yachvili's 14 points - plus a try from fellow French veteran Damien Traille - set up an attractive final on May 18 against Toulon, who edged Stade Francais on Friday thanks to a last minute drop goal by Jonny Wilkinson.

The all-French climax is being staged at The Stoop, the home ground of English club Harlequins.

Victory in the European Challenge will also come with the reward of a place in next season's European Cup which would be a welcome bonus to five-time French champions Biarritz, who have no chance of qualifying through the Top 14 finishing spot and have battled against relegation all season.

Brive, though, are left solely to rebuild their morale and ensure they do enough in the final two Top 14 league matches - they face a relegation six pointer against fourth from bottom Bordeaux-Begles next weekend - to preserve their elite status.

At present they are one place above the second and last relegation spot - Lyon have already been relegated - by virture of a better points difference than Bayonne.

Traille scored the only try of the first-half bravely going up for an up and under by Marcelo Bosch and coming off best against South African wing Ronnie Cooke to touch down - which was confirmed by the video referee.

Yachvili converted to add to his two penalties prior to that and left their opponents a tough task to surmount.

Brive had their chances to reduce the deficit but South African kicker Riian Swanepoel was off colour and missed his penalty attempts.

Brive fared little better when they were awarded a penalty on the hour mark and opted for a scrum five metres out but Biarritz managed to turn the scrum and the referee awarded a penalty to Biarritz.

The peerless Yachvili all but sealed Biarritz's place in the final in the 65th minute as he slotted over a penalty to make it 16-0 and added another with 10 minutes remaining.

Alexandre Barozzi rounded off a woeful day for Brive as the prop was red carded on the whistle for throwing a punch.

Scorers:

For Biarritz:
Try: Traille
Con: Yachvili
Pens: Yachvili 4

For Brive:
None

Red card: Alexandre Barozzi (81st min - headbutt)

Teams:

Biarritz: 15 Iain Balshaw, 14 Taku Ngwenya, 13 Dane Haylett-Petty, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Benoît Baby, 10 Marcelo Bosch, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Raphael Lakafia, 7 Talalelei Gray, 6 Benoit Guyot, 5 Manuel Carizza, 4 Jérôme Thion, 3 Eugène van Staden, 2 Arnaud Heguy, 1 Sylvain Marconnet.
Replacements: 16 Benoit August, 17 Yvan Watremez, 18 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 19 Erik Lund, 20 Magnus Lund, 21 Julien Peyrelongue, 22 Jean-Pascal Barraque, 23 Charles Gimenez.

Brive: 15 Mathias Atayi, 14 Ronnie Cooke, 13 Riaan Swanepoel, 12 Jamie Noon, 11 Sevania Galala, 10 Mathieu Belie, 9 Augustin Figuerola, 8 Antoine Claassen, 7 Vincent Forgues, 6 Simon Azoulai, 5 Olivier Caisso, 4 Retief Uys, 3 Alexandre Barozzi, 2 Iuri Natriashvili, 1 Jefferson Poirot.
Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Pablo Henn, 18 Pat Barnard, 19 Julien Le Devedec, 20 Arnaud Mela, 21 Poutasi Luafutu, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Arnaud Mignardi.

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Greg Garner (England). Simon McDowell (Ireland)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)

AFP and rugby365.com