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Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Fresh, novel pairing to Champions Cup final as Leinster wonder what might have been
Champions Cup final: Northampton Saints v Bordeaux Bègles, Principality Stadium; Saturday, 2.45pm (live on RTÉ2 and Premier Sports) The sense of anticlimax, of what-might-have-been, will not be confined to bars and homes in the province of Leinster. It was palpable on the plane over, in the streets around Cardiff, when Northampton conducted their eve-of-match press conference and there may well be more Leinster blue in the enclosed stadium than the estimated 3,000 clad in claret supporting Union Bordeaux Bègles . After all, this will be the first final in four seasons, and just the third in the last eight, not to feature Leinster. The last hurdle has been acutely painful for them but to fall short in their magnificent obsession at the penultimate stage has hurt even more, and this final will only compound those scars. Still, the 30th Champions Cup final has a fresh, novel pairing. Northampton, winners in 2000 and runners-up against Leinster in 2011, against first-time finalists Bordeaux Bègles. It's generously sprinkled in star dust too. READ MORE With Damian Penaud having recovered from the ankle injury which left him in tears at the end of the 35-18 semi-final win over Toulouse three weeks ago, UBB revert to the same starting XV from that game. Alas for Joey Carbery , an unused replacement in Leinster's win over Racing 92 in Bilbao seven years ago, despite his versatility he loses out on the bench to the impactful Rohan Janse van Rensburg, with scrumhalf Maxime Lucu instead providing cover for Matthieu Jalibert. Bordeaux's Joey Carbery. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Northampton welcome back George Furbank, albeit he has only played once since December due to a broken arm, with James Ramm (a try-scoring fullback in that win three weeks ago) shifting to the wing. But the Ulster-bound number eight Juarno Augustus is sidelined with the ankle ligament injury he sustained in training before last week's win over Saracens. So Tom Lockett starts at lock, with Alex Coles shifting to a reconfigured backrow with Henry Pollock at number eight, while Ollie Sleightholme returns from an ankle injury on the bench. Even so, there is still more of a patchwork feel to the Saints. UBB recruited well last summer and have been able to rotate from a position of strength to ensure they arrive at this stage of the season relatively fit and fresh – witness Carbery missing out despite overcoming a three-month absence to play 20 games this season. Five of the previous 29 finals have had no tries over the 80 minutes, but with so much cutting edge and world-class finishers on display, and the roof closed to block out the rain, even allowing for a degree of tension and nerves, there'll surely be tries aplenty. Between them, UBB (50 in seven games) and Northampton (39) have scored 89 tries in reaching this final. Tommy Freeman and Penaud have both scored 21 this season for club and country, including nine and a record 12 for Penaud in this competition. The jet-heeled Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who looked equally unplayable in UBB's game of tip rugby at their Captain's Run, has scored 31 tries in 26 games for club and country in this campaign. And then there's Henry Pollock, who said this week that he and his team-mates can't wait to 'rip into' this final. To the boy's credit, he walks the walk too, and six of his seven tries in this competition, celebrated in his own inimitably teasing way, have been against French sides. 'We love him, I'm not sure who hates him,' said the Northampton Director of Rugby Phil Dowson when asked about the 'love-hate' view from France of the extravagantly talented 20-year-old backrower. 'He's confident and he's unashamedly himself,' said Dowson. 'He's one of these guys you'd love to have in your team and hate to play against.' This Northampton side loom as dangerously for UBB as they did for Leinster in the semi-finals. In the last two seasons, the English champions have demonstrated their big-game mentality by winning seven of their last eight knockout ties. The only exception was last season's 20-17 Champions Cup semi-final defeat against Leinster in Croke Park. Yet having watched UBB dismantle Ulster and Northampton at first hand, and most of all do the same to Toulouse, the sheer unrelenting ferocity of their pack which was just as eye-catching as their stardust. There was the running games of hooker Maxime Lamothe and number eight Pete Samu, as well as the workrate and endurance of lock Cyril Cazeaux and flanker Guido Petti (both of whom have played every minute of the knockout stages despite 6-2 splits). That and Jalibert, who is on fire and looks primed to join the long list of stellar European Cup-winning outhalves. 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 Bègles: Romain Buros, Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Sipili Falatea, Adam Coleman, Cyril Cazeaux, Mahamadou Diaby, Guido Petti, Pete Samu. Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg. Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo). Forecast: Bordeaux Bègles to win.
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Joey Carbery not selected in matchday squad for Bordeaux Bègles for Champions Cup final
Joey Carbery has missed out on the Bordeaux Bègles matchday squad for their Champions Cup final against Northampton at the Principality Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 2.45pm, live on RTÉ and Premier Sports). Although he has played in virtually every UBB game in recent months, and started the Round of 16 win over Ulster, as against his former team Munster in the semi-finals, Carbery is a victim of the decision by head coach Yannick Bru to go with a 6-2 split on the bench. Carbery, who won a Champions Cup with Leinster in 2017-18 when an unused sub in the final against Racing 92 in Bilbao, has played 20 games for UBB since joining them last summer, seven of them off the bench. He is particularly unlucky to miss out on the club's first Champions Cup final after playing in five of their seven games en route to the decider, starting the wins over Ulster and the Sharks in the pool stages, as well as that Round of 16 game. READ MORE Bordeaux Bègles have been given a significant boost by the inclusion of Damian Penaud, who has been sidelined since what looked like a season-ending ankle injury in their convincing 35-18 semi-final win over Toulouse three weeks ago left him in tears. Penaud has scored 21 tries this season for club and country, including a record 12 in this Champions Cup campaign, and looked like his sprightly self in their Friday Captains Run under the enclosed Principality Stadium roof. The starting XV remains unchanged from that semi-final, with the only two alterations on the bench seeing the return of prop Ugo Boniface and centre Rohan Janse Van Rensburg at the expense of Carbery. Northampton have also welcomed back England fullback George Furbank, although he has only played one game in the calendar year since suffering a broken arm last December. Curtis Langdon, James Ramm and Alex Coles have all recovered from injuries in last week's 28-24 win over Saracens, with Ramm switching from fullback to wing and Coles from the secondrow to blindside compared to the starting XV in their 37-34 semi-final win over Leinster. Tom Lockett is named in the secondrow, with Josh Kemeny and Henry Pollock shifting to seven and eight, compared to that semi-final in the absence of the Ulster-bound Juarno Augustus, who is not expected to feature again this season due to an injury during training before the Saracens match. Union Bordeaux Bègles : Romain Buros; Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Sipili Falatea, Adam Coleman, Cyril Cazeaux, Mahamadou Diaby, Guido Petti, Pete Samu. Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg 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
Irish Times
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Leo Cullen under scrutiny after Leinster loss to Northampton
No team has a divine right to win the Champions Cup , as Leinster know better than most. Maybe winning their first four finals in 10 years set the bar too high. Even so, in the aftermath of Saturday's 37-34 semi-final exit to Northampton, a return of one Champions Cup in 13 years seems poor for all the investment in the playing squad, facilities and coaches in that time. The final in Cardiff in three weeks on Saturday, May 24th, will be between Northampton and first-time finalists Bordeaux Bègles, with Joey Carbery playing the last 11 minutes in dethroning the six-time winners Toulouse, by winning Sunday's semi-final 35-18 in Bordeaux. That will be a hard watch for Leinster supporters, management and players alike. 'I can't, unfortunately, comment on how you get judged over a long period of time,' said Leo Cullen when the return of one European title in 13 years was put to him after his 10th Champions Cup campaign as head coach. Leinster vs Northampton – the comeback final revisited Listen | 35:17 'If you wind the clock a bit further back, if you asked us in 2009, in 16 years' time you'll have, what, four Champions Cups? In the previous 14 years we had doughnut. So, it depends again how far you go back with some of those questions. READ MORE 'We would have loved to have won more. If you ask every team in the competition, they would have loved to have won more but we know how bloody hard it is to do it. We understand the pain that we're in at the moment. It's a horrible feeling for everyone in there, I can assure you. But what do we do? Dust ourselves off and go again.' Cullen has often cited how the Leinster/Irish model operates in contrast to the French and English clubs, who are backed by wealthy benefactors, although Leinster cannot really play the poor mouth. The playing budgets of Northampton and the other Premiership clubs are capped at €7.2 million, while the salary cap in the Top 14 is, in theory, €10.7 million. Leinster head coach Leo Cullen Cullen disputed the latest claims in the French and English media that the province's annual players' budget is € Leinster's budget is swollen by 11 players under central IRFU contracts, their annual wage bill is unknown. Most likely it is around the €12-14 million mark, but in any event, Cullen disputed the latest claims in the French and English media that Leinster's annual players' budget is €17 million. 'It is wild. That's miles off,' maintained Cullen. 'Unfortunately, people can write whatever they want. As we know, the system here is a little more complex than in other countries but we don't have a published salary cap. I don't think it's a conversation for this moment in time. I've seen some of those figures and they're just not accurate. How do you correct people who write things that aren't true in the current media?' Coming up short again hurts all the more after investing in a dual World Cup-winning defensive coach, a renowned French scrummaging prop, a two-time World Cup winning lock and a world-class, 68-times capped All Black utility back. But as well as the debatable decision to leave Jordie Barrett on the bench for the first 50 minutes after his man-of-the-match display in the quarter-finals, a defence which had kept two attack-orientated sides scoreless in their previous two knock-out ties was clinically dissected. A delighted Joey Carbery with his son after his side, Bordeaux Bègles, beat Toulouse in the Champions Cup semi–final. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho 'There will be a bit of head scratching there in terms of some of our mentality around defence and were we really clued in enough for some of the threats Northampton have,' admitted Cullen. 'We've seen them attack. The players have seen them, they know, but that's a big score to concede in a play-off game.' Cullen and Jacques Nienaber are both under contract next season and for all the disgruntlement among Leinster supporters, both will assuredly be in situ next season. A little taken aback by being asked if he was the right man to one day take Leinster to that cherished fifth star, Cullen responded with increasing defiance. 'Yeah, I think I am. Yeah. I believe that I am, yes. I think we've worked hard to try and improve the group year on year on year and I think the group is very strong right now. That's not something that's just created last week; it's year on year. Bottoms up? Exposed in a maul during the Champions Cup semi–final between Leinster and Northampton. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 'We've lost three finals over the last three years, but I believe we've a stronger group now than we've had and that's the way I will continue to approach the day-to-day in preparing the short term, medium term, long term. So, yes. And I'm very committed to that as well.' If there was any complacency in this semi-final after 62-0 and 52-0 wins in the previous rounds, it could only have been compounded by leaving Barrett on an all-international bench boasting 358 caps, as against Northampton's seven. 'I will look back on lots of different things, over the course of the next few weeks,' said Cullen. 'And, yes, when you don't win a game, particularly in a semi-final, everyone is going to second-guess everything. 'Jordie brought huge impact, and that is what we wanted from him. Similar with Jack Conan, as well, and a lot of other players that were on the bench. You look at us at the end of the game, we looked like a strong team, attacking the game. There's probably bits before where we weren't quite accurate enough. But I don't have regrets about that plan, specifically.'
