Champions Cup final preview: Northampton Saints and Bordeaux Begles primed for novel Cardiff clash
It's a Champions Cup final with a fresh twist and a novel pairing.
For the first time in four seasons, and just the third time in the last eight years, Leinster are marked absent.
Instead, Bordeaux Begles, for the first time, or Northampton Saints, winners in 2000, will raise the trophy aloft in Cardiff's Principality Stadium where organisers are expecting over 60,000 fans, many of whom may be wearing and feeling blue.
Having contested the last three deciders, and come so close to a fifth star, plenty of Leinster fans had already booked flights and accommodation to the Welsh capital and now have to look on as either Fraser Dingwall or Maxime Lucu raise the cup after the tournament's 30th final.
It's hard to know if the involvement of former Leinster, Munster and Ireland out-half Joey Carbery would have made it even harder to endure for the travelling Irish support – imagine if the Athy man landed a late kick to win the cup.
However, the 29-year-old, who started three times and featured off the bench in Bordeaux's semi-final win over Toulouse, gets pushed out with Yannick Bru opting for a 6:2 split.
The Irish connection comes now in the form of ex-Ireland Under-20s boss Noel McNamara as he oversees a star-studded backline including Lucu, Matthieu Jalibert, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud, who has recovered from an ankle injury to take his place on the wing.
The French side are top scorers in the competition with 50 tries and come into the game with a 100% winning record, including victories over Leicester, Ulster (twice), Exeter, Sharks, Munster and the defending champions, Toulouse, 35-18 three weeks ago.
Surprisingly beaten by Harlequins in last season's quarter-final, they also reached the Top14 decider.
The tale of the tape shows the French outfit, who were only promoted to the top tier in 2011, best in class in lineout success (91%), metres made (3,805), clean breaks (102) and turnovers won (75).
What a season @UBBrugby are having 🔥
Best moment so far in #InvestecChampionsCup?
Last few tickets remaining here ➡️ https://t.co/O7bnPkk91G pic.twitter.com/5ULjX7hWdb
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) May 20, 2025
Bru will feel his team, who are appearing in their first Champions Cup final, are due a title.
Phil Dowson's Saints, who lost to Stade Francais but beat Castres (twice), Bulls, Munster, Clermont and Leinster this season, are not short of stars in their own backline.
Scrum-half Alex Mitchell, out-half Fin Smith, and winger Tommy Freeman, who scored a hat-trick in their stunning 37-34 semi-final win against Leinster, are all going on the Lions tour, while England full-back George Furbank returns following injury.
That means James Ramm, who has beaten 30 defenders this season, a tournament high, moves to the wing.
Hugely prominent in the semi-final win in Dublin, the performance of Lions bolter Henry Pollock may go a long way to deciding the outcome.
Short-listed for the player of the tournament, alongside Lucu and top-try scorer Penaud (12), the Saints back row has scored seven tries in the competition and tops the charts for turnovers with 18.
"It's every rugby kid's dream to play in these finals. It's where you want to be in your career," said the dynamic 20-year-old, who moves to number 8 with Ulster-bound Juarno Augustus injured.
"I'm really excited, I can't wait. There's a great buzz around the club, everyone's ready to rip into it".
After a slow start to the season, Northampton, beaten in the 2011 final by Leinster, have been on fire for the knock-outs.
What a run to the #InvestecChampionsCup Final 🔥 @SaintsRugby 's best moment?
Get your tickets to the Principality Stadium before they're gone ➡️ https://t.co/O7bnPkk91G pic.twitter.com/Ft2Zm8QeDt
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) May 20, 2025
They left it too late to make the play-offs in the Premiership but come into this game off the back of a morale-boosting 28-24 win over Saracens last weekend.
Notably, Dowson didn't put his frontliners on ice for that clash: Mitchell, Smith, Freeman and Pollock all started.
Bordeaux, too, decided not to rest their main men for last weekend's Top14 win over Castres, which keeps them in second place in the table.
Saints, the last season's Premiership winners, demonstrated what they can do in that famous win in Dublin three weeks ago and Bordeaux have ample warning.
Both sides can strike from deep with numerous play-makers all over the pitch, the game is set up for a shoot-out, however, finals have a funny way of making teams tighten up.
"You often see across sports that semi-finals are end-to-end classic encounters and then finals are often a nervy, turgid affair where the margins are very tight," said Dowson.
"We have spoken about that, we understand that and we need to make sure we don't panic when those things happen.
"We want to make sure – and I am sure Bordeaux are saying exactly the same thing – that (the semi-final) is not the summit of our season, that this game is our best performance and our most exciting one."
The sides have met just once previously, UBB winning a pool stage game, 16-12, in Franklin's Gardens in 2020, with former Connacht back Santi Cordero scoring a crucial try.
Whatever happens, the absence of the teams that have reigned in Europe for the last 15 years: Leinster (seven finals), Saracens (four), La Rochelle (three), Clermont (three), Toulon (three) and Toulouse (three), means the final has a refreshing feel to it.
If Northampton can reproduce the form of the last round, they'll be right in the mix but Bordeaux, slight favourites, look like men on a mission.
Northampton Saints: George Furbank; Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall (capt), Rory Hutchinson, James Ramm; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Emmanuel Iyogun, Curtis Langdon, Trevor Davison; Temo Mayanavanua, Tom Lockett; Alex Coles, Josh Kemeny, Henry Pollock.
Replacements: Craig Wright, Tarek Haffar, Elliot Millar Mills, Ed Prowse, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Ollie Sleightholme.
Bordeaux Begles: Romain Buros; Damian Penaud, Nicols Depoortère, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt); Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Sipili Falatea, Adam Coleman, Cyril Cazeaux, Mahamadou Diaby, Guido Petti, Peter Samu.
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