Wallaby Samu celebrates European Champions Cup glory
Wallabies backrower Pete Samu will return home as a European Champions Cup winner after helping Bordeaux-Begles to a 28-20 win over Northampton in the final at Cardiff's Principality Stadium.
The 33-year-old Samu's taste of European title glory in Cardiff came as he nears the end of his second and last season with the French club he joined after the 2023 World Cup.
After Bordeaux-Begles players and staff had trooped off the pitch having been crushed 59-3 by Toulouse in last year's Top 14 final, they vowed to return better and stronger this year and on Saturday, match-hardened, they finally got their reward.
Revenge against Toulouse had come in the Cup semi-finals but it was not so much the sparkling backline attacking play they showed there that made the difference on Saturday as their forward power and defensive intensity that blunted a Northampton backline full of England internationals.
Star France winger Damian Penaud did score two tries to take his season's tally in the competition to 14 - earning him the player of the year award.
But Bordeaux's relentless driving mauls and straight running sucked the energy out of a Northampton side who drained the tanks in trying to keep them at bay.
Conductor-in-chief was scrumhalf and captain Maxime Lucu, who also took over the goal-kicking duties after some wobbles by Matthieu Jalibert.
His penalty broke the 20-20 halftime deadlock and Bordeaux sealed the deal - the fifth title in a row for France - with Cyril Cazeaux's try.
Samu's success came against a Northampton team containing three Australians - flanker Josh Kemeny, winger James Ramm and bench forward Angus Scott-Young.
Capped 33 times for the Wallabies, former Brumbies star Samu has signed to return to Australian rugby and play with the NSW Waratahs through to the 2027 home World Cup.
"It feels good to have this first trophy, it wasn't easy," said Lucu after being named man of the match. "We had some very tough moments, but we hung in there.
"Honestly, it feels great - for the club, for the team, for the supporters. After defeat last year (in the Top 14 final) to come back this year, eliminate almost every team that had won this competition, and earn our first star, it's wonderful."
Penaud also referenced the Top 14 final defeat as motivation. "After last year's setback we said to ourselves that we never wanted to go through that again because we had taken a lesson," he said.
Saturday's victory meant that Bordeaux accounted for six former European champions in this season's run, with Northampton, winners in 2000, the last to fall.
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