The Heineken Cup's most notorious combatants reviewed their explosive acquaintance in Brive yesterday and once again, there was one hell of a scrape. This time, though, it was fought out within the laws of the game rather than the laws of the jungle and few of the 13,000 present will forget it in a hurry.

The Frenchmen, who prevailed by the skin of their teeth, now travel to London to face Wasps in next weekend's quarter final match - a game that has "classic" stamped on it.

There was something starkly appropriate about the two sides' choice of clothing for this play-off encounter. Both opted for their traditional black and white and, worryingly for Pontypridd, it seemed clear that the outcome would be equally unequivocal.

The Welshmen boast formidable reserves of heart and desire, however, and after finding themselves blown clean out of central France in the opening 40 minutes they found sufficient supplies of raw courage to claw their way back and win the second half just as convincingly.

Seven weeks ago, the clubs participated in a late 20th Century impersonation of the September Massacres and although they could not admit as much in the finger-pointing aftermath, Ponty took enormous pride from the fact that they had stood eyeball-to-eyeball with the European champions. They did so again yesterday, although this time they started as though they were not on the same planet.

From the fourth minute when Christophe Lamaison dummied across to the left of the Ponty posts, the decisive third contest between the two pugilists appeared done and dusted. Brive were soon pretty much out of sight and as the scoreboard tally mounted, the quality of performance purveyed by Didier Casadei, Olivier Magne, Alain Penaud and their comrades wiped the dirty slate clean. The unsavoury memory of l'Affaire le Bar Toulzac received its last rites and looked like being buried under an avalanche of French points.

Casadei, far too good a prop forward to be ignored by the national selectors for much longer, gave Mike Griffiths the mother of all hidings at the early scrums and that muscular dominance allowed Brive a platform from which to launch their superior backline. Sebastien Viars, tentative at full-back for much of the Heineken campaign, found so much freedom that he finished a one-way first half almost completely rehabilitated; he might easily have scored twice and created a couple more.

As it was, Brive had to settle for Lamaison's early strike, two penalties from the same player and a second try from Laurent Travers, a miniature tank of a hooker who popped up on the end of a withering move featuring Phillipe Carbonneau, Magne and Francois Duborsset to finish in style. Over-complication and some needlessly ambitious long passing cost Brive further progress and nearly cost them the match as well.

It was Jonathan Evans, a bundle of furious endeavour in the Ponty front row, who set the tide turning. His strong run down the right flank five minutes into the second half created a handy position from which Neil Jenkins landed his first penalty, a successful kick that would soon be followed by a second that closed the gap to 6-18. Then came a soft try for Mark Spiller from a five-metre scrum and, astonishingly, a far better one from Dafydd James, who took advantage of Martyn Williams' gallop into the Brive 22 and some unusually quick hands from Steele Lewis. Twenty points in 11 minutes.

Had Jenkins not hit a post with a penalty 17 minutes from time and then hooked a simpler attempt in the 74th minute, Ponty might have reaped the fruits of their comeback. Sadly for them, it was Jerome Carrat, the Brive left wing, who put his name on the wrap-up score, almost stumbling over at the flag following Pennaud's high pressure kick. Lamaison sunk the conversion and that was enough - just enough - to slam the door on the Welshmen.

Brive: S Viars; P Boaati, D Venditti, C Lamaison, J Carrat; A Penaud (capt), P Carbonneau; D Casadei, L Travers, R Crespy, E Alegret, Y Manhes (P Lubungu, 49), L van der Linden (L Mallier, 54), F Duboisset (R Sonnes, 50), O Magne.

Pontypridd: G Wyatt; G Lewis, D James, S Lewis (J Lewis, 67), P Ford; N Jenkins (capt), P John; N Eynon, J Evans, M Griffiths (A Griffiths, 68), G Prosser, M Rowley, A Spiller, M Lloyd (G Lewis, 73), M Williams.

Referee: J Fleming (Scotland).