Following a 47-29 win for Bordeaux-Begles against Munster in their Investec Champions Cup quarter-final, here’s James While’s five takeaways from Saturday’s clash.
The top line
An atrocious first 30 minutes from visitors Munster left them too much to do against the brilliance of the Bordeaux backline as the Top 14 side progressed to the Champions Cup semi-finals. Bordeaux will meet one of either Toulon or Toulouse as the points in the bank in the first half saw them to victory.
But UBB made a right Horlicks of the next 50 minutes of the match, where indiscipline cost them dearly, as they saw three yellow cards and a red in the final moments and they might want to thank the outstanding Maxime Lucu for a brilliant last ditch tackle on Thaakir Abrahams as the French Test player delivered yet another match-winning performance in a memorable season for him.
From his clearance, some brutal defensive work with Yoram Moefana shining, saw Lucu tear down the left wing to release Louis Bielle-Biarrey to close the match out. But it was far too close for comfort for the hosts and had Munster started in the manner they played from 30 minutes to 80 minutes we may very well have seen a different result as Bordeaux’s discipline and inaccuracy saw them fall apart against a brilliant rearguard effort from Tadhg Beirne and his troops as they won the second half 19-18.
Un-Munster like
When this wonderful Irish province are at their best, you see rugby that is accurate, direct, physical, but above all, passionate.
For some reason, it took the visitors some 30 minutes to get their long journey from the South of Ireland out of their legs, and for that half an hour, Bordeaux literally tore them to shreds in terms of defence and tackle completion.
Munster looked disorganised, error-strewn and, above all lacking concentration in terms of their primary defensive work. The French half-backs, Matthieu Jalibert and Lucu, pulled them this way and that with some wonderful kicking and at one point in the first half, it looked like this was going to be a repeat of the one way traffic seen at the Aviva last night.
But, with Abrahams the one player offering consistency and threat throughout, a combination of errors and disciplinary howlers saw UBB take their foot off the gas pedal and let Munster back in. Beirne led with fine example at the breakdown and Alex Nankivell’s try on the stroke of half-time was just reward for 10 minutes of revival from the visitors.
But as Munster mounted their fightback, scoring again after half-time, indiscipline, yellow cards and poor defence, sealed the fate of the visitors. Tom Ahern and others might be excused for their indiscretions, but there was no excuse for the 30 minutes of lethargy that Munster suffered from for the first half an hour that cost them so dearly.
Backline magic
If Leinster and Toulouse are the contenders for the best forward packs in the world, then there’s little doubt that Bordeaux-Begles are the undisputed heavyweight champions of backline brilliance.
In these times of global unrest, firepower at their disposal wouldn’t be amiss in the arsenal of any of the global superpowers. From nine to 15, pace, ambition and sheer impudence sets their backline apart. It’s all driven by the direct pragmatism of Lucu at nine, and engineered by the eccentric and quite brilliant visions of Jalibert at 10.
With Lucu’s exits giving UBB ridiculous distance out of their own half, and Jalibert’s first three kick plays in attack resulted in tries, the pairing looked absolutely deadly, and that’s before the passing of the fly-half is mentioned – one effort to Bielle-Biarrey almost 40m and deadly accurate, delivered whilst on the move.
In the three-quarters, Yoram Moefana underlined his progress both sides of the ball in a wonderfully abrasive and direct display in his favoured 13 position, dominated the early exchanges in attack and shoring up the defensive holes later on in the match.
Add in the brilliance of Penaud who crossed for his record breaking 12th try in Europe this season and the intelligence of Bielle-Biarrey and there’s few teams in the world that can compete with this brilliant backline, and Munster were no exception, but UBB will be well aware that they need to play for 80 minutes, not 30, in the next round of this competition.
Set-piece woe
Munster are a team that pride themselves on their basics. With a lineout that features two Test Lions and a Springbok they regard that part of their set-piece as a given, especially considering that one of those Lions is the lineout supremo himself, Peter O’Mahony.
So to watch UBB systematically dismantle and pressure the Munster throw was quite the surprise. In the first half alone, Munster lost six of their own throws, some down to the competition of UBB in the air, where Guido Petti led a really intelligent shoplifting effort to steal three cheap throws, but moreover in the vocal, physical and mental pressure they placed upon Munster.
It was schoolboy stuff from the visitors; a simple example was watching Niall Scannell come on as a replacement and go for two successive extended throws to the back, both of which he overthrew into waiting Bordeaux hands, an option he repeated once again in the second half with Munster camped on the hosts try-line.
It was close to inexplicable calling given the pressure that UBB had exerted; these were lineout moments that called for quick simplicity over long form complexity. The domination of the hosts in the aerial forward battle removed so much continuity from Munster that any form of attacking position they managed fell apart under the lineout pressure applied and if any area of the match was key in forming the result, it was the brilliance of Petti and co. in the lineout battle.
The game in numbers
The most notable statistical feature of this match was the sheer indiscipline of both sides, but in particular, the second-half showing from Bordeaux.
Five cards were shown by referee Nika Amashukeli – two for each side, but a third yellow, his second, to lock Cyril Cazeaux saw Amashukeli forced to reach for a red for two transgressions, and it was Cazeaux’s indiscretion that allowed Munster to mount that final challenge.
But in terms of efficiency with ball in hand, Bordeaux scored on 65% of their entries into the Munster 22, compared with a 20% return for Munster, showing precisely just how lethal the UBB backline is in attack.
Add in the lamentable 57% return on their own lineout and a dreadful 63% tackle completion percentage that saw the visitors miss a whopping 34 attempts and it’s clear that error count in set-piece and defence absolutely killed any momentum that Munster tried to maintain.
With Bordeaux also bossing the breakdown steals with eight against two, the key numbers went the way of the hosts, but with 74% tackle completion and 29 missed themselves, they know they have a lot of work to do ahead of the semi-final clash.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/bordeaux-begles-v-munster-five-takeaways-as-schoolboy-stuff-costs-ian-costellos-side-while-outstanding-french-general-shines
