Brive captain Antoine Claassen declared he was proud of his side after leading them into the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals for the second successive season.
Claassen put in a man of the match display at Edgeley Park, rounding off a powerful forward display with a late try and he was delighted to complete the pool stage unbeaten and reach the knock-out stage.
"I'm really proud of the effort the boys put in tonight and it's great to be in the quarter-finals for the second year," said Claassen's.
"I'm really happy, we had a strange lead up to the game with us being stuck on the motorway and arriving a little bit late but it worked in our favour as we play well under pressure.
"We really stepped up and were aggressive and we are through to the quarter-finals and can look forward to that when it comes around.
"The guys did very well in the scrum and driving mauls tonight and fronted up and we played when we had to and kept the ball when we had to as well especially in these conditions.
"We have been taking things game by game during the tournament but we knew we were in with a good chance tonight, so it was all to play for.
"It's great to be in the last eight and now we get the chance to face some of the really big teams in Europe."