Bordeaux beat Northampton Saints 28-20 in Cardiff to claim European silverware
Cardiff witnessed a classic Investec Champions Cup final as French club Bordeaux edged out Northampton Saints 28-20 to claim their first ever European trophy.
This was an enthralling contest between two European heavyweights with seven tries scored in total but French giants Bordeaux were too good for Northampton.
Sensational France wing Damian Penaud crossed for two tries with Adam Coleman and Cyril Cazeaux also touching down, while Mathieu Jalibert and Maxime Lucu kicked eight points between them.
Alex Coles scored a brace for Northampton while Fin Smith contributed 10 points.
The English champions made an electric start as Coles powered over from short-range with Smith adding the extras.
But Bordeaux were soon on the attack in Northampton’s 22 and after some nice interplay between backs and forwards Bielle-Biarrey crossed at the corner.
Bordeaux’s attack continued to click and after a period of sustained pressure the magical outside-half Jalibert danced past five or six Northampton defenders before giving the try-scoring pass for Coleman to touch down at the corner.
Smith and Jalibert exchanged penalties before Bordeaux’s Mahamadou Diaby got sent to the sin bin for a high tackle.
Northampton were soon down to 14 men when British & Irish Lions squad member Tommy Freeman got shown a yellow card for taking Penaud out in the air deep in the English clubs 22.
And Bordeaux made the most of their numerical advantage with Penaud touching down at the corner.
But just when the French giants seemed to be running away with it Northampton hit back with a stunning try which was straight off the training field.
Northampton went down the right-hand side to release Ollie Sleightholme on the wing who drew in the final defender to find Coles on his inside for the try.
Smith knocked over the conversion to leave the scores level at 20-20 at the interval.
Northampton made another strong start to the second half and Henry Pollock thought he had scored only for the try to get chalked off because of an off the ball challenge on Ben Tameifuna.
Bordeaux dominated much of the second half with Lucu nudging them ahead from the kicking tee but they should have held a bigger lead only for hooker Maxime Lamothe to spill the ball over the line twice.
But they finally got their just rewards when second-row Cazeaux powered over from short-range.
Northampton tried desperately to get back into the game but Bordeaux were too strong as the French club got crowned European champions for the first time ever.
