Champions Cup final: Leinster 19-41 Bordeaux
French side run in five first-half tries in comfortable win
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 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.
Continue reading...
