Brive won in Agen and lost props. The Corrèze club responded the next day by signing a player who has known the division for seven years.

Thirty-one minutes per game

John-Henry Fincham is 27 and arrives from Béziers, where he came through the academy after moving to France in 2019. Seven seasons in the division, 51 Pro D2 games, 1,601 minutes: an average of thirty-one minutes per game.

That is the profile of a finisher, the man sent on to hold the scrum for the last half-hour. He started eleven of his 51 games. Last season, he played fifteen for 503 minutes.

His busiest season came in Nationale

One spell shows what he can do when picked from the start. On loan at Valence-Romans in 2022-2023, then in Nationale, Fincham played 19 games, 16 of them as a starter, for 1,029 minutes. It is the only campaign of his career in which he started week after week.

He counts as JIFF (French-trained), which carries weight when recruiting a front-row forward.

A front row to rebuild

Brive announced his arrival on Saturday, the day after their 37-14 win in Agen. The Corrèze club said injuries were piling up in the position.

Unbeaten after two rounds, Brive are third in Pro D2 with eight points, behind Provence Rugby and Oyonnax.