Irish club Connacht already have an uphill climb in the Challenge Cup after a tryless away loss to Brive tonight, and home and away games against Newcastle to come.

Luciano Orquera kicked four penalty goals in Brive's 15-6 victory, with Tim Donnelly and replacement Peter Durcan kicking goals in either half for the Irish visitors, who lost replacement Colm Rigney to the sin-bin in the dying minutes.

Brive: 15 Barry Davies, 14 Filimino Boleavucu, 13 Ronie Cooke, 12 Ben Johnston, 11 Norman Ligairi, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Grégory Mahe, 8 Ryno Van der Merwe, 7 Jerome Bonvoisin, 6 Vincent Forgues, 5 Fabien Domingo (capt), 4 Johan van Zyl, 3 Andres Bordoy, 2 Jawad Djoudi, 1 Pierre Capdevielle.
Replacements: 16 Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux, 17 Luke Harbut, 18 Scott Franklin, 19 Steve Thompson, 20 Jean-Baptiste Pejoine, 21 Maxime Petitjean, 22 Suka Hufanga.

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Ofisa Treviranus, 13 Mel Deane, 12 Keith Mathews, 11 Aidan Wynne, 10 Tim Donnelly, 9 Conor McPhillips, 8 John Muldoon, 7 Jonny O'Connor, 6 Mike McCarthy, 5 Andrew Farley (capt), 4 Michael Swift, 3 Robbie Morris, 2 John Fogarty, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Brian McGovern, 18 Colm Rigney, 19 Ray Ofisa, 20 Conor O'Loughlin, 21 Peter Durcan, 22 Darren Yapp.