Bordeaux vs. Begles made a statement on Saturday when they eliminated Saracens from the Investec Champions Cup with a 45-12 win at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.
The French side were too good for the former champions, who scored six tries, with Mateo Garcia, Nicolas Deportaire and Louis Viel-Bialley scoring two tries each.
Saracens were held scoreless for most of the game as they finished second best, but late tries from Alex Lewington and Tom Willis were enough to keep them calm.
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Both teams were without key players at fly-half, with Saracens in Owen Farrell and Bordeaux in Mathieu Jalibert.
Bordeaux were also confident of scoring 55 points against their English opponents in the pool stages and showed early threat with winger Biel Bialley and prop Ben Tamefuna both coming within seconds of scoring tries.
Bjer Bialei ran out of space after the kick and Tameifuna could not ground the ball well over the line, but Damien Penault’s forward pass allowed full-back Romain Bros to cross the line for the third time. His shot was also called back.
So Saracens missed out on an early goal by a hair’s breadth from Alex Goode Glover’s bounce of the ball past winger Lewington, but Bordeaux were again denied by the TMO, who judged the cross to have given Biel-Biallei space to break through. It was done.
In the end, it took about 30 minutes to take the lead. Bordeaux’s try from the kick-off was denied by another TMO decision after Maxime Luuk converted an easy penalty chance after Saracens were offside.
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The visiting team lost lock Maro Itoje for 10 minutes to a deliberate knock-on, and Bordeaux scored their first try of the match, with Bros breaking out wide and being picked up by fly-half Garcia to finish.
Good had a chance to reduce the lead with a penalty at the start of the second half, but his shot from 40 yards hit the outside of the post.
Instead, Bordeaux made a sudden break and managed to keep the ball alive before number 8 Tevita Tataf went for a touch, the ball ricocheting off defender Ben Earl’s knee and allowing Garcia to cross the line and take a touch. It went down.
Bordeaux used their scrum power to put Saracens on the back foot, allowing Garcia and right-winger Penault to combine to allow center Deporterre to stay under the post, ending any hope left for the visiting team.
Bjer Bialei quickly added a fourth from a spilled ball that bounced off center Yoram Moefana’s head, and Ruku maintained his perfect kicking record.
With the result in the bag, Deportele added a second goal from a deft tap penalty move before Lewington scored a painful try for the England team.
Biel-Bialley added salt to Saracens’ wounds with his second goal, and the visitors, Willis, responded, but it was too late.
team
Bordeaux: 15 Romain Bulos, 14 Damien Penaud, 13 Nicolas Deportaire, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Vier Bialley, 10 Mateo Garcia, 9 Maxim Luk (c), 8 Tevita Tuff, 7 Pete Sam, 6 Antoine Mikel, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Cyril Cazeau, 3 Ben Tamefuna, 2 Maxime Ramote, 1 Jefferson Poirot
Replacement: 16 Roman Laterrado, 17 Lexo Kaulashvili, 18 Karl Sadi, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Tomas Jolmes, 21 Guido Petty, 22 Jan Resgrug, 23 Pablo Uberti
Saracens: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Alex Goode, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Theo. – McFarland, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Christian Judge, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Mako Vunipola
Replacement: 16 Theo Dunn, 17 Eloni Mawi, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 20 Tom Willis, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Ollie Hartley
Referee: Frank Murphy (IRE)
Assistant referee: Eoghan Cross (IRE), Andrew Cole (IRE)
TMO: Brian McNeese (IRE)
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