Following a 66-12 victory for Bordeaux-Begles against Sharks in the Investec Champions Cup, here’s our five takeaways from the fixture at Stade Chaban Delmas on Sunday.
The top line
Damian Penaud powered Bordeaux-Begles to Pool One glory and made Champions Cup history with a six-try display which catapulted him to the top of the tournament try charts.
The France wing was an unstoppable force as he plundered a hat-trick in each half to become the first player ever to score half a dozen tries in the northern hemisphere’s premier club competition. His pool total of 10 also set a new record.
The 28-year-old sensation nailed each of his three opportunities before half-time to pull his side back into the contest after a sluggish start and then bagged three more to seal a commanding win.
Sharks had shocked the home side, and their 28,000 capacity crowd, with early tries by Siya Maluku and Hakeem Kunene. They led 12-0 after inside seven minutes.
Enter Penaud, with his fifth, sixth and seventh tries of this tournament. “He scores tries for fun, he is an arch finisher,” waxed the watching Topsy Ojo, himself an international wing of renown, at half-time.
The fun was not over. Three more scores, as Sharks tired, made it nine in two matches and double figures for the pool stages.
What it means for both teams
Victory for Bordeaux confirms them as top seeds and earned them a home tie in the Round of 16 against Ulster.
The Irish province qualified only because Bordeaux beat Sharks by more than 28 points. They will have gone from cheering the Frenchmen to fearing what may now very well lie in store for them.
Sharks’ 10-try defeat condemns them to return to the Challenge Cup for the knockout stages of Europe’s secondary competition.
Penaud a class apart
Matthew Robinson held the record for most tries in the pool stages of Europe’s premier cup competition, having bagged nine for Swansea in the 2000/01 season.
It looked a record to stand the test of time but Penaud had other ideas, adding to his hat-trick against Exeter last time out with a devastating display of finishing to bring up double figures.
He added his fifth of the campaign on 13 minutes, finishing on the right after Bordeaux had secured line out ball and quickly moved it to the wide outside. Five minutes later the France star struck again, reading a Sharks offload brilliantly and walking the ball in.
On the stroke of half-time he collected his third, putting the home side ahead for the first time, popping up at first receiver on the other wing to crash over.
There was time for an assist, playing a 1-2 with Maxine Lucu as the scrum-half started and finished a length of the field counter-attack, before he completed his four-timer with a clever chip and chase 13 minutes from time.
Still he was not satisfied and twice more he crossed the whitewash before referee Christophe Ridley put Sharks out of their misery.
Bordeaux’s Bouclier de Brennus revenge mission
Bordeaux have been a club on a mission since being routed 59-3 in Marseille by Toulouse in last season’s French Championship final.
That stung this proud club badly and their pledge to set the record straight has seen them blaze a trail in the Top 14, with 11 wins from 14 starts, and roam unbeaten in Europe.
So it was that after Penaud’s first-half masterclass they not only kept their foot on the gas but pressed it to the floor. Lucu trousered the four-try bonus point on 44 minutes and there were two more from Ugo Boniface and Yoram Moefana before the game reached the hour mark.
If any further evidence was needed of Bordeaux’s insatiable appetite for winning it came with their ruthless final quarter which featured fifth and sixth tries for the one man destroyer, Penaud, on a day he will not quickly forget.
Season to forget for Sharks
Challenge Cup winners last season, eliminated from the Champions Cup pool stages just months later, it has been a campaign to forget for the Durban-based Sharks.
They could have qualified with a modest defeat. Instead they suffered a repeat of the heavy beating they took at Leicester on their previous road trip.
After that 56-17 thumping head coach John Plumtree demanded the organisers change the scheduling of the competition.
“It might be a premier competition and a great competition,” he said. “But unless they sort it all out and do it properly it’s not a high performance competition.”
His anger was centred around the fact South Africa’s top players are required to compete in both hemispheres on a never-ending loop, with little time to draw breath. “They are not robots,” he said. “And right now they’re treated like robots.”
An early 12-0 lead in Bordeaux gave them false hope. Even with Siya Kolisi driving them on, they were no match for the French Top 14 leaders since try scorer Hakeem Kunene was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle in the 13th minute.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/bordeaux-begles-v-sharks-five-takeaways-as-unstoppable-damian-penaud-dumps-out-springboks-laden-side-after-campaign-to-forget