Following Bordeaux Begles’ 42-28 win over Leicester Tigers in the Investec Champions Cup, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
Matthieu Jalibert
Magical work from the fly-half, who is certainly doing everything he can to make Fabien Galthie regret the Autumn fallout. It seemed – especially in the second-half – that everything he touched turned to gold, and his champagne touches were instrumental in their fight back. There’s something about playing for his club, and playing in the Champions Cup too, that brings the best out of him and he will need to replicate his showing again if they want to reach the latter stages.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey
Just freakishly good at rugby for a 22-year-old, isn’t he? He had a fairly quiet first-half by his usual high standards, but my word he burst into life in the second. His speed always makes him a key threat, but being deployed in the 15 shirt today meant he popped up in different areas of the pitch which actually brought the best out of him. The French international also played a key role in their resurgence, with two tries to his name.
Peter Samu
The number eight was incredibly busy throughout his shift, and grabbed two tries for his efforts. His powerful work in the wide channels was so vital in allowing the backline to flourish around the park, and he was able to get his side consistently past the gainline and also keep the Leicester line stretched.
Bordeaux Begles
Their second-half show should set the tone for them this year in the Champions Cup, and they will certainly be one to watch in this competition. Whilst they found themselves down at half-time, when they got going they looked imperious and just waltzed past Leicester. What’s also worrying for the rest of the competition is they just effortlessly went up the gears and eventually ran away with the game.
Leicester Tigers scrum
The visitors will take a lot of positives out of this game, but the scrum will certainly be their biggest. Bordeaux’s pack, and especially the front-row, is one of the most formidable in Europe, but the Tigers had their number at virtually every scrum and got a proper foothold in the game as a result. This is one of the areas that made Leicester the champion side they were in the past and it seems they are going back to that sort of DNA again now.
Hanro Liebenberg
He just fits the mould of a typical Leicester back-rower and today was yet another sign of this. The South African is such a workhorse around the park and always seems to just pop up in the exact area his team needed him, which was so important in getting them the upper hand early doors. Will he soon be attracting the interest of Rassie Erasmus?
Michael Cheika
Yes it was a defeat, and a heavy defeat based on the scoreline, but Michael Cheika will certainly be pleased with his team’s performance for the most part. Leicester looked very sturdy in the first-half and kept to the blueprint that they’ve adopted this year even under the cosh, but the thing that will fill him with joy is the fact he tested a lot of new faces at the highest level. This experience will be a great stepping stone for a lot of his squad and it now gives him plenty of food for thought with his selection as he should have a lot more choice as a result. The losing bonus-point was also very deserved.
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Losers
Bordeaux scrum
On the flip side of the scrum, the Bordeaux pack will be furious with their scrummaging showing. They are regarded as one of the most formidable in Europe, yet Leicester came there, with a rotated unit, and just took them to the cleaners for most of the game. The way Bordeaux play is clearly built on their champagne backs, but it requires some grunt up front to get them on the front-foot and they just couldn’t get this done against Leicester. That should show teams at the top table – the likes of Toulouse and Leinster – that they could be there for the taking should they bring it at scrum time.
Maxime Lucu
He is finding minutes very hard to come by at Test level, with Antoine Dupont and Nolann le Garrec ahead of him in Fabien Galthie’s eyes, but he didn’t really do anything to change that today. He did his job well, and allowed Jalibert to run the show, but he needs to be the star of most of Bordeaux’s games moving forward if he wants to properly get back into the picture for the Six Nations. He just wasn’t able to do that today.
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