Bordeaux won the Champions Cup in Bilbao with clear superiority over Leinster. The French side’s attacking edge and Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s finishing produced decisive scoring, including another brace that brought his season total to 34 tries in 30 games. Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert’s playmaking supported Bordeaux’s back-to-back titles. Leinster trailed 35-7 at halftime and only managed a slight rally in the third quarter after Lucu was sin-binned for pulling back Joe McCarthy by the collar. Despite Leinster’s history of high scoring in finals, the gap in game-breaking class remained obvious. The tournament has become increasingly difficult for non-French teams, with France winning the Champions Cup for a sixth consecutive year.
"On a hot, unforgiving afternoon in Bilbao there was never the slightest doubt who would be hoisting the trophy into a cloudless Basque sky, such was the clear superiority of the defending champions. Only Leinster themselves have ever racked up more points in a Champions Cup final and the scoreboard did not lie. In some ways Leinster should be absolved from any particular shame. There is now no club side in the world with a sharper attacking edge than Bordeaux nor a deadlier individual finisher than Louis Bielle-Biarrey."
"The French wing added another brace of tries to his tally, which now stands at 34 in 30 games this season. Factor in the artistic direction of Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert and their back-to-back titles are not remotely a coincidence. So much, either way, for Leinster's pursuit of a fifth gold star on their jerseys. The four-time winners were a distant 35-7 down at the interval before rallying slightly in the third quarter after Lucu was sin-binned for yanking back Joe McCarthy by his collar."
"As with Ulster the previous evening against Montpellier, the gap in game-breaking class was otherwise conspicuous. French rugby has its foibles but the national team and the best Top 14 sides are now in a shared sweet spot. Bordeaux's Louis Bielle-Biarrey races clear to score a try against Leinster. Factor in the cacophony of noise and the punishing conditions and it all felt a million miles away from suburban Dublin."
"There is also no doubt this tournament grows ever harder for non-French sides to win. This is the sixth straight year that the Champions Cup has ended up in Gallic hands, with France having also claimed this year's Six Nations title. They have won so much this year it is a wonder that France didn't win the Eurovision song contest as well. With thousands having travelled across the border to northern Spain this certainly felt like a Bordeaux hom"
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]