After beating Stade Toulousain in the Champions Cup semi-finals, the Bordeaux-Bègles players are expecting a complicated final against Northampton, surprise winners over Leinster.
Bordeaux-Bègles will face Northampton in the first Champions Cup final in their history on 24 May in Cardiff. It will be an unexpected encounter at the start of the season, as Louis Bielle-Biarrey confirmed after the victory over Stade Toulousain in the semi-finals last Sunday (35-18).
Nobody expected this final! Northampton were able to win against Leinster, who had put in two good spankings beforehand
explained the French international. We need to stay focused, confident and sure of our strengths. But we have to tell ourselves that it’s going to be a very tough match!
A team that looks a bit like us
A sentiment shared by UBB opener Matthieu Jalibert.
We watched the other semi-final together. They too pulled off a feat. They’re a very playful team and I think they’re a bit like us
he explained on Sunday. They also have a pretty mobile forward pack and three-quarters who find each other pretty well, all within a well-oiled system of play. It’ll be interesting to see how they match up. The final should logically be an attacking affair, with both teams favouring attacking play. The statistics are there to prove this visual impression.
UBB are the team that has scored the most points (342) and the most tries (50), but Northampton are third in both these rankings and are ahead of their future opponents in the number of balls played by hand (944 compared to 814). The top five scorers in the Champions Cup this season are also in these two teams, with Damian Penaud top scorer (twelve tries), although he is not certain to be present for this decisive match. Disappointing in the Premiership (7th in the standings), Northampton are showing a very different side in the Champions Cup, with just one defeat this season. So be wary.
Given the last final we played in…
One thing is certain: the Bordeaux-Bègles players have no intention of taking the English club lightly. We have to tell ourselves that this will be a very, very tough match,’ said Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Given our last final (a 59-3 defeat by Toulouse in the Top 14, editor’s note), I don’t think we have anything to teach anyone about how to prepare for this kind of match. Experienced scrum-half Maxime Lucu is on the same wavelength. It’s going to be a big match, with a lot of pride on the other side,’ he says. It’s up to us to take them on and win the first trophy we’ve ever won.
