Bielle-Biarrey doubles up as Bordeaux sink Leinster to retain Champions Cup

Another vintage year for Bordeaux, another bitter final loss for Leinster. 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 reigning champions. Only Leinster have racked up more points in a Champions Cup final and the scoreboard did not lie.

That reality will not sit easily with anyone connected with an outgunned Leinster. This was their fifth final defeat in eight years, but there was some mitigation. No club side in the world possesses a sharper attacking edge than Bordeaux nor a deadlier finisher than Louis Bielle-Biarrey. The French wing added another two tries to his tally, which now stands at 34 in 30 games this season, and was later confirmed as the player of the year. Factor in the artistic direction of Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert and their back-to-back titles are not remotely a coincidence.

So much, for Leinster’s pursuit of another 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 harshly sent to the sin-bin 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 in a shared sweet spot.

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 the Champions Cup has ended up in Gallic hands, with France having claimed this year’s Six Nations title. Aside from the Eurovision song contest they have won virtually every other high-profile prize this year.

Little wonder there were some crestfallen Irish faces. “Unfortunately, the game got away from us in the first half,” said Leinster’s head coach, Leo Cullen. “There’s some frustration we haven’t been anywhere near as clinical as we’d like to have been. We weren’t good enough today. But you’ve got to give credit to Bordeaux. They were so sharp in the first half.”

Not much went right for Leinster from the moment Tommy O’Brien touched down in the right corner in the eighth minute to register the game’s first points. Unlike the damp day in this same stadium when Leinster last won this title in 2018 there was always a sense Bordeaux would leave some spectacular vapour trails given half a chance. With thousands of their fans having crossed the border into northern Spain to cheer them on, that is exactly what unfolded.

Never mind they were facing the team with the meanest defence in the tournament. If anything it seemed to sharpen their appetite from the moment Lucu sniped over for their first try from a close-range ruck, with Cameron Woki already having a flying effort ruled out in the right corner. Some deft midfield offloading opened up ominous space for winger Pablo Uberti to score out wide before UBB cranked things up to another level with the game not yet 25 minutes old.

Watching Jalibert and Lucu probe, tease and find the cutest of angles is among the biggest privileges of the modern game. Hard though they tried, Leinster could barely lay a glove on either of them. When the ball fell to Bielle-Biarrey with two cover defenders theoretically in his way, the winger did what he does better than anyone, stepping inside and then straightening at the last minute to reach the try line.

Leinster, without having down too much wrong, were 21-7 down and things were about to get worse. The heat was not helping their cause and in the last six minutes of the first half they suffered two more heavy blows to morale.

This time it was not so much French genius as a double dose of misfortune. Damian Penaud got a boot to a deflected loose ball and it bounced up perfectly for Bielle-Biarrey who sped away for his second.

Even when Leinster managed to string together a half-promising attack it ended in disaster, Yoram Moefana intercepting Harry Byrne’s pass near halfway before cruising away in the distance for his side’s fifth try.

The second half, perhaps unsurprisingly, was more subdued. Leinster did score through a diving McCarthy and the persevering Garry Ringrose while Rieko Ioane had the occasional bright moment, but two penalties from Lucu settled any fluttering nerves. Jalibert was withdrawn with the game won and the rest was a noisy procession.

The backdrop was special, too. The San Mamés is a cool stadium stylistically and lies a few tram stops away from the stunning Guggenheim Museum where modern architecture and contemporary art spectacularly combine. As far as Bordeaux are concerned, though, there would be nothing more stunning than a third successive Champions Cup title. At this precise moment few would bet against them.