1
Leicester crumble in Bordeaux, Ulster shredded in Toulouse
By PA
Bordeaux-Begles mounted a second-half fightback to beat Leicester 42-28 in their opening Investec Champions Cup clash at Stade Chaban-Delmas.
The Tigers had built a seven-point lead by half-time, but the hosts recovered with four tries as France international Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored twice.
Despite resting several players for the European tie, Leicester made a positive start with two tries in the opening 15 minutes through lock Harry Wells and Josh Bassett’s close-range touchdown.
Bordeaux had replied with a sixth-minute try from forward Pete Samu before Guido Petti went over from a counter-attack to level things up ahead of the half-hour mark.
Frenchman Come Joussain then crafted a try on his Tigers debut to put the English side 21-14 ahead at the break.
Bourdeaux, though, regrouped during the interval and produced a lightning start to the second half as Bielle-Biarrey scored from his own kick before Samu went over for his second to put the home side in front.
Bielle-Biarrey touched down again between the posts before Nicolas Depoortere ran in a sixth try, with Izaia Perese bundling over late on to at least secure Leicester a bonus point.
Holders Toulouse made it a French double Pool One as Antoine Dupont’s side swept past Ulster 61-21 at Stade Ernest-Wallon.
The hosts had set the tone when Matthis Lebel went over in the corner inside two minutes before Romain Ntamack barged across from Dupont’s pass.
Ulster responded with a 12th-minute try from James McCormack, but Toulouse soon scored again through lock Emmanuel Meafou before Italy international Ange Capuozzo capped off a fine move and Dupont touched down a fifth try.
Stewart Moore raced clear to get Ulster on the board again, but there was little respite as Meafou’s second try made it 40-14 at the break.
Santiago Chocobares continued the onslaught in the second half from another flowing attack and Capuozzo went over after collecting a fine kick from Dupont.
Iain Henderson barged over for Ulster’s third try with 13 minutes left before Toulouse completed a comprehensive win with a penalty try from the final action of the match, Thomas Ramos having kicked seven conversions.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Sam Simmonds' Montpellier replacement a blow for Wallabies – report
3
Camille Chat breaks silence on his immediate effect Racing 92 exit
4
Six players Rassie Erasmus must hand Springbok debuts to in 2025
5
Latest Comments
If Pollock is in the squad, who gets left out?
"I think the Eddie Jones style development player approach is whats called for"
(i) Why?
(ii) The churn of players under Eddie Jones was generally considered to be quite a bad thing. Do you want Guy Pepper, Ted Hill, Ben Curry, etc. to give up and go to France like Marchant did?
(iii) England already have a really young squad, and especially a young back row. If they do badly in the six nations Borthwick will probably lose his job, so shouldn't they prioritise winning in the short term and developing the players already in the squad, rather than bringing in newer, younger, guys?
(iv) England have a development tour in June. If you really want Pollock to be in the squad prior to graduating the u20s, why not wait until the summer?
Go to commentsWhen England's defence was able to get into shape it could be dominant though (especially in the game against NZ). Is the number of tackles really the main issue?
I get that making loads of tackles is tiring, but so is building multi-phase attacks. I'm just worried England would get tired out from attacking, then struggle to get set when they're subjected to counter attacks.
Go to comments