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France 24
24-05-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Bordeaux-Begles join club rugby's 'top table' with Champions Cup glory
The victory in Cardiff came 11 months on from their first major final, when they were hammered 59-3 to Toulouse in the Top 14. "We've wanted to sit at the big boys' table for two years now," scrum-half Lucu told reporters. "Last year we failed, this year we've put a star on the shirt," he added. Bordeaux-Begles were only founded in 2006 after a merger of two clubs and featured in the top-tier of continental rugby for the first time in 2015. They also moved into the 32,000-capacity Stade Chaban-Delmas and have become the club in Europe with the highest average crowd. "The title valiatdes the work done by the club around 10 years," head coach Yannick Bru said. "Bordeaux-Begles are on a positive journey, we've gone from being a start-up to and outsider and now we're credible outsiders," the former France hooker added. 'Limelight' Bru's outfit have been fuelled by some superb individual performances by the likes of fly-half Matthieu Jalibert and clinical winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud. Penaud crossed twice in the final and was named Champions Cup player of the season having taken his tally to a record 14 tries in the campaign. "It's hard to focus on one person because he finishes off moves," Bru said. "Damian and Loulou are adorable guys. "It also embarrasses me to put the limelight on them and make them superstars. "Bordeaux-Begles are lucky to have guys like that," he added. For Northampton, their search for a second Champions Cup title after clinching one in 2000 was hampered by three first-half injuries. Winger James Ramm, full-back George Furbank and lock Temo Mayanavanua left the field in the opening half an hour. "It has a huge impact, it's not ideal," director of rugby Phil Dowson told reporters. "Rambo lasted two minutes and Furbs five and then Temo got a head knock changes things, at the same time it's the whole point of having a bench. "Those guys came and had an impact which is impressive," he added. The game was played at a high intensity despite numerous interventions by the television match official. Four tries were chalked after being referred to the video referee. "I think we've got to be careful that it doesn't become too like NFL in terms of stop-start game," Dowson. "We want to play a game that's open and expansive and so did Bordeaux-Begles. "We've got to make sure that there's not loads and loads of looking at screen and showing slow-mo. "But I'm also conscious that the game has to be safe and so the high shots have to be checked. "We want to see a bit more momentum in the game," the former Saints back-rower added. Bordeaux-Begles became the 14th side to win the trophy since its incarnation in 1995. © 2025 AFP
RTÉ News
24-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
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 ➡️ — 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 ➡️ — 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.
France 24
23-05-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Lucu's Bordeaux-Begles eye 'neutralising' Pollock in Champions Cup final
Youngster Pollock was named in the British and Irish Lions squad for this summer's tour after some superb performances for club and country. The 20-year-old crossed twice on his England debut in March before scoring an impressive solo try in the Champions Cup semi-final win at four-time winners Leinster earlier this month. "He's a very classy player. He has incredible qualities," scrum-half Lucu said before Saturday's game in Cardiff. "When you talk about big players like that it's important to neutralise them. "He's a threat to us," the 32-year-old added. In the build-up to the game, France half-back Lucu has sent photos of Pollock to his Bordeaux-Begles back-row team-mates, including 20-year-old Marko Gazotti and Pierre Bochaton, to remind them of the task at hand this weekend. "They're little jokes we've shared this week," Lucu said "They were mainly for Marco Gazzotti, because they (Pollock) are part of the same generation. "They'll have a battle," he added. Some 10,000 empty seats are expected at the Millenium Stadium for the game, Bordeaux-Begles' first Champions Cup final. Up to 15,000 Northampton fans will make the journey from the East Midlands, England while at least 2,500 fans will travel from south-west France. The low number of French fans is down to a lack of travel connections and a meagre number of hotel rooms in the Welsh capital, inflating prices on match weekends. However, tens of thousands are set to flood the streets of Bordeaux to watch the final on big screens. "We know it's not easy to come here to Cardiff, because it's costly too," Lucu said. "We're proud to have between 3,000-5,000 people from Bordeaux in Cardiff to support us because it's a historic moment for the club, a first European final. "We have to give something back to them and also the supporters who have stayed in Bordeaux to watch the match," he added.
BBC News
12-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Six-try Bordeaux hold off Munster to reach last four
Bordeaux (29) 47Tries: Penaud, Lucu, Samu, Echegaray, Lamothe, Bielle-Biarey Cons: Jalibert 3, Lucu Pens: Jalibert 3Munster (10) 29Tries: Nankivell, Smith 2, penalty try Con: Crowley 2 Pen: Crowley Bordeaux scored six tries to hold off stubborn Munster at Stade Chaban-Delmas and reach the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals. After the high of edging past La Rochelle in a last-16 classic last weekend, Munster were blown away by a devastating Bordeaux attack in the first half as Damian Penaud, Maxime Lucu, Pete Samu and Jon Echegaray all their credit, Munster battled through a sluggish display and scored four tries through Alex Nankivell, Stephen Smith (2) and a penalty the half-time deficit proved too big to overcome as Maxime Lamothe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey ensured Bordeaux's progression despite Cyril Cazeaux's dismissal for two yellow card offences. Bordeaux, who have never won the Champions Cup, will face the winners of Sunday's quarter-final between Toulouse and Toulon (15:00 BST), guaranteeing French representation in the final for the sixth season running. Having conjured immense emotion and belief to down a La Rochelle unit coached by Munster icon Ronan O'Gara, producing another vintage display in the south of France was always going to be difficult for the Irish so it proved. Munster looked tired and sloppy, and as their line-out deserted them, Bordeaux took full advantage and effectively put the result beyond doubt after 33 Bielle-Biarrey, the Six Nations player of the tournament, was reinstalled to the Bordeaux line-up after missing last week's win over it was another prolific France wing who got the hosts up and running as Penaud latched on to Matthieu Jalibert's grubber kick to finish in the corner for his 12th try in this season's there, Penaud - whose stunning haul in this campaign includes a six-try display against the Sharks - turned provider. First, he left the Munster defence in his wake to set up Lucu before teeing up Samu, who finished off a flowing Bordeaux move in style. Echegaray quickly added a fourth, and while Munster appeared shell-shocked, Nankivell marked his return from suspension with a much-needed try to give the Irish side a glimmer of hope. More to follow. Line-ups Bordeaux: J Echegaray; D Penaud, Y Moeffana, J Van Rensburg, L Bielle-Biarrey; M Jalibert, M Lucu (capt); J Poirot, M Lamothe, B Tameifuna; A Coleman, C Cazeaux; M Diaby, G Petti, P C Sa, M Perchaud, S Falatea, P Bochaton, M Gazzotti, B Vergnes-Taillefer, Y Lesgourgues, P Cazeaux (46), Echegaray (67)Munster: T Abrahams; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, A Smith; J Crowley, C Casey; J Wycherley, D Barron, O Jager; J Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); P O'Mahony, J Hodnett, G N Scannell, M Donnelly, S Archer, F Wycherley, T Ahern, C Murray, S O'Brien, A Ahern (54), Kendellen (63)Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
The Guardian
08-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Galthié's gamble with lopsided bench pays off for France as Ireland unravel
For this weekend at least, Dublin has a French quarter. By the time the final whistle went at the Aviva Stadium, the thousands of French fans inside, outside and all around the ground were cheering, screaming, roaring, singing, dancing, in celebration of one of the great victories. They had travelled in huge numbers and been rewarded with five tries and 42 points, a record score for them in this city, revenge in plenty for the 21-point thrashing by Ireland in Marseille last year. France are favourites for the championship now and the Irish are squaring up to the kind of existential hangover you get by being so completely beaten in a match that had so much riding on it. The game will take some unpicking. In the first moments after it was over, it left a mess of images. Somewhere in the tumult was young Sam Prendergast looking, for the first time, like a kid playing a man's game, being smacked back in his very first collision with Yoram Moefana and stripped by Uini Atonio, and Damian Penaud galloping across the field, the game unspooling around him like a film that had slipped its reel, Louis Bielle-Biarrey sprinting around Hugo Keenan like he was a maypole, to slap the ball down behind the posts, and Jean-Baptiste Gros tossing an underhand pass to Maxime Lucu as he came barrelling in behind him, and Oscar Jégou twisting underneath Tadhg Beirne's reach to twist over the Irish try line. In this sort of form, playing France is like sitting out a whirlwind. All you can do is duck and cover. The cruel part is that when the Irish side sit down to go over the tapes, they might just find that there were the makings of a very different game somewhere in there, too. There were moments when the match was right there for the taking, if they had only been able to reach out and seize hold of it. They will look at the first 20 minutes in particular when they had three-quarters of the territory and three-quarters of the possession, and did three quarters of naff-all with it. They had a run of four early penalties, sent two to the corner and tried to maul their way over, kicked a third at goal, and still didn't manage so much as a single point. Even then, they were right in it either side of half-time. They were two points down right before the break, and five points up right after it, after Dan Sheehan scored off a maul in the corner. Better yet, at that point the French looked to be reeling from the loss of the talismanic Antoine Dupont, who was forced off in the 30th minute when Beirne collapsed into his knee after he was shoved while trying to clear out of a ruck. There are half a million rugby players in France, at least a couple of thousand or so professionals, Fabien Galthié managed to pick 75 of them just last year. They even have a good handful of Test-match scrum halves, Lucu, Nolann Le Garrec, Baptiste Serin, Baptiste Couilloud and Baptiste Jauneau. But they only have one Dupont. Which is why Galthié has built the team around him. On came Lucu, like the actor playing understudy to Olivier. The entire tone of the game changed in the first minutes he was on the pitch, the Irish crowd swelled, the Irish players surged and the bewildered French were blown back into their own territory. It got worse when Pierre-Louis Barassi was forced off with a head injury after a high tackle by Calvin Nash. France had picked such a lopsided bench, with seven forwards, that it felt a good thing the players don't have to share the same stretch of timber anymore, or else Lucu, the one solitary back, would have been stuck 10 feet up in the air, like a kid playing seesaw with a sumo. With Barassi off too, France were forced to bring flanker Jégou on at outside-centre. It was a hell of a gamble. But it turns out that Galthié is a fair judge of the odds. In the 48th minute, with the match hanging in the balance, and while Ireland were one man down waiting for Nash to come back on to the field after his 20-minute dismissal, Galthié brought on his squad of five forwards. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion The game changed again then. Moments later, the Irish were battered back off their own ball, and Penaud was away and running. It was as if someone had slipped them into a higher gear, all of a sudden they were playing a very different sort of rugby, above and beyond what the exhausted Irish could live with. Truth is, the seven-one bench paid off. They had too much power, too much speed, too much skill, and the game broke open, in a flood of 29 points in the next 21 minutes. Ireland, who are such an intricately organised side, a bit of clockwork engineering, collapsed in a mess of coils and springs and levers, like a watch dashed on a rock. A fair few teams have come to Dublin and gone down to epochal defeats in recent years, you wonder whether the Irish have just done likewise.
