Bordeaux bulldoze Northampton to win Champions Cup

Northampton were overwhelmed by Bordeaux-Begles' forward power

Investec Champions Cup final

Northampton: (20) 20

Tries: Coles 2 Cons: Smith 2 Pens: Smith 2

Bordeaux-Begles: (20) 28

Tries: Penaud 2, Coleman, Cazeaux Con: Jalibert Pens: Jalibert, Lucu

Northampton's Champions Cup dream was crushed as French giants Bordeaux-Begles' second-half power saw them muscle out a 28-20 victory in the final in Cardiff.

Saints, who upset four-time champions Leinster in the semi-finals, had threatened to conjure another shock with Alex Coles' tries at either end of the first half giving them a 20-20 share of the scoreline at the break.

Bordeaux's sparkling backline took a back seat for the second half however as their forwards, including six of the replacements, gradually wore down Northampton.

Second row Cyril Caseaux scored the only try of the second period, barging over from short range.

It was a route that Bordeaux took again and again, but a stubborn Northampton defence repelled them repeatedly.

Ultimately though, short of possession and territory, there was no way back into the lead for Saints and their wait for a second Champions Cup, now a quarter of a century old, goes on.

Victory in their maiden European final sets Bordeaux on course towards supplanting Toulouse, who they beat in the semi-finals, as French and European champions.

After suffering a sobering 59-3 defeat by their south-west rivals in last year's Top 14 final, Bordeaux are set on a domestic collision course with Toulouse once again, with the two teams leading the French standings.

Rampant start sparks Saints hope

Coles found a way over inside two minutes to fuel hope among the travelling Northampton fans

Northampton hurtled into the game, pouncing on a Bordeaux spill, ploughing upfield and crossing as Coles, who passed a late fitness test to start, threaded the ball through a tangle of limbs to ground inside two minutes.

Saints supporters were still in full cry though as their fruitful opening turned sour.

Wing James Ramm limped out of the fray as Fin Smith lined up the conversion.

Full-back George Furbank, playing only his second game since breaking his arm in December, followed shortly after on a stretcher after catching an accidental knee in the face as opposite number Romain Buros attempted to hurdle over him in pursuit of a loose ball.

Ollie Sleightholme and Tom Litchfield were summoned off the bench, but the subsequent rejig shunted England wing Tommy Freeman to full-back and scrambled some of Saints' backline understanding.

Once play restarted following Furbank's injury, Damian Penaud sauntered in for his 13th try of Bordeaux's continental campaign to pull his side back within two points.

Shortly after, Louis Bielle-Biarrey looked to have put his fellow wing over again, only to have the score chalked off for a forward pass.

That call apart, Saints felt they were getting little from referee Nika Amashukeli with Smith called for a marginal knock-on and Freeman seemingly blocked off by second row Adam Coleman as he pursued a kick ahead.

There was no argument about Bordeaux's second try however.

After the ball went to ground in Northampton's 22m, Mathieu Jalibert's twinkling feet evaded five Saints defenders before the France international pumped a basketball-style pass out of the tackle and Coleman crashed over in the corner for 12-7 to the French side after 20 minutes.

Saints slowly recovered from the onslaught with Smith moulding some shape into his reordered backline.

A couple of penalties from the fly-half edged Northampton back to 15-13.

Penaud continued to bristle with danger though and, after spilling forward close to the line on one occasion, he dived over amid the chaos of Jalibert's botched and regathered grubber.

Northampton refused to be shifted from the contest and, with Freeman and Mahamadou Diaby both in the sin-bin and the game swinging wildly from end to end, Coles went over in the final play of the half after Sleightholme had bumped off a tackler.

That try, and Smith's dead-eyed conversion, levelled the half-time scoreline at 20-20 after a breathless first period.

Bordeaux turn the screw to secure maiden triumph

Pollock saw a try chalked off at the start of the second half

The tumult continued two minutes after the restart when Henry Pollock, quiet until then, cantered over off a clever blind-side line-out move and pulled a Cristiano Ronaldo-style 'calma' celebration, to the delirium of the travelling 'Shoe Army'.

However, the video referee picked up Coles holding back a Bordeaux defender, wiping the score from the board and the smile from Pollock's face.

When Northampton replacement Ed Prowse was despatched to the sin-bin for a high hit on Yoram Moefana shortly after, Maxime Lucu slotted the subsequent penalty and Bordeaux saw their chance.

The Top 14 side, who had loaded their bench with six forwards, introduced the heft of 24-stone Ben Tameifuna, tightening up the game and their grip on its outcome.

Second row Caseaux barged over after Saints had heroically repelled a pair of piledriving rolling mauls.

That score took Bordeaux eight points clear and while a game Northampton kept running from deep and spreading wide in search of a score, their entertaining continental campaign eventually ran out of steam on the biggest stage.

Northampton's appearance in the final was the first by an English club since Exeter's victory in 2020, and, given the gap in financial firepower to their rivals across the Channel, might be the last for a while.

Saints were the only one of five English clubs to emerge from the last 16 in this year's tournament, with runaway Premiership leaders Bath failing to make it out of the pool stage.

Analysis

Former Northampton and England scrum-half Matt Dawson on the Rugby Union Weekly podcast: "Things went wrong that weren't Northampton's fault with the injuries early on and three bench players coming on in the first half.

"It took the momentum out of them and they had to spend a lot of time trying to reorganise.

"They did a really good job but Bordeaux capitalised on a bit of indecision, indiscipline and ultimately a huge amount of fatigue in the final 15 minutes.

"Northampton couldn't get themselves into any kind of position to stretch Bordeaux in the second half.

"Henry Pollock's disallowed try might have given them that momentum but the key incident for me was when Ed Prowse got sin-binned.

"There was no need to make that tackle. Northampton had gone to the well to dig in after the early injuries and then they had to dig in again."

Line-ups

Northampton: Furbank; Freeman, Dingwall (capt), Hutchinson, Ramm; Smith, Mitchell; Iyogun, Langdon, Davison, Mayanavanua, Lockett, Coles, Kemeny, Pollock

Replacements: Wright, Haffar, Millar Mills, Prowse, Scott-Young, James, Litchfield, Sleightholme

Bordeaux-Begles: Buros; Penaud, Depoortere, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Jalibert, Lucu; Poirot, Lamothe, Falatea, Coleman, Cazeaux, Diaby, Petti, Samu

Replacements: Sa, Boniface, Tameifuna, Bochaton, Vergnes-Taillefer, Gazzotti, Retiere, Janse van Rensburg

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo)

Assistant referees: Andrew Brace (Ire) and Andrea Piardi (Ita)

TMO: Marius Jonker (SA)