Bordeaux run in five tries to beat Toulouse

Bordeaux join Northampton for the Final of the Champions Cup - the first in the club’s history. If Bordeaux were worried about surviving an angry Toulouse pack straight after the break, they needn’t have been. In similar fashion to the first forty, the Bordelais burst straight out the traps thanks to star winger Bielle-Biarrey.  The youngster burst free inside his own half to cover 50 metres before offloading to Samu. The Australian then looped the ball back to him behind the back, where the striding winger collected it in space to charge home next to the posts. And all that just one minute after the restart.

Head Coach Yannick Bru’s men didn’t rest on their laurels either, backing up their early score with sustained pressure. But it was pressure the reigning champions grew used to, and one they managed to turn sooner rather than later. Pierre-Louis Barassi went through to put an end to wave after wave of Toulouse carries, and to bring them to within one score of parity.  UBB had to weather another mini storm when record-breaking try-scorer Damian Penaud went off, but you wouldn’t have noticed they’d lost one of their star players when Pierre Bochaton bullied his way over just after the hour mark to give Bordeaux air for the final 20 minutes. And with the wind in their sails, Bru’s troops regained a stranglehold of the swathes of play. Even when Stade Toulousain offered moves forward, missed passes were signalling it was UBB’s time.  They properly put the semi to bed just two minutes from time when Ben Tameifuna barged his way over into touch. Bordeaux book their spot in the Principality Stadium’s Finale at the end of the month, knocking out the six-time champions in the process. While Bordeaux will get a taste of their first final in the competition, Stade Toulousain taste knockout defeat to a French side in 80 minutes for the first time in 15 outings.