On a rainless Saturday at Bilbao’s iconic San Mamés Stadium in northern Spain, French rugby union side Bordeaux Bègles delivered a devastating first-half performance to crush Irish powerhouse Leinster 41-19, claiming the 2024 European Rugby Champions Cup title and cementing France’s total dominance of men’s top-tier European rugby this season. The victory marks the second consecutive Champions Cup crown for a French club, and completes a historic hat-trick of major European titles for French sides in 2024, following France’s Six Nations championship win over Ireland in March and Montpellier’s lopsided 59-26 victory over Ulster in the second-tier Challenge Cup final the previous night. This historic win also extends France’s unprecedented streak to six consecutive European Cup titles, a run of continental dominance that has few parallels in modern rugby. From the opening kickoff, the match took an unexpected turn when Leinster starting wing Tommy O’Brien, who earned a starting nod over Irish international star James Lowe, crossed the try line for an early score to put the Irish side up 7-0. What followed over the next 28 minutes was a masterclass in offensive rugby from Bordeaux, as the French side ran in five converted tries to put the match almost out of reach before the halftime whistle. Scrumhalf and team captain Maxime Lucu got Bordeaux on the board with a sharp sniping try from close range, before breakout star wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey notched two tries, pushing his tournament total to 10 for the campaign. Bielle-Biarrey’s standout form throughout the competition earned him player of the tournament honors, adding to his player of the Six Nations award earned earlier this year, capping a breakout season for the young French talent. Just before the first half wrapped up, Bordeaux put the final nail in the first-half coffin when center Yoram Moefana intercepted a pass from Leinster fly-half Harry Byrne and sprinted the length of the pitch to score, pushing the French lead to a commanding 35-7 at the break. Lucu turned in a player-of-the-final winning performance, orchestrating Bordeaux’s lethal attack and nailing all seven of his kicking attempts, including a long-range penalty from his own half. Even a first-half yellow card for a hair-pulling incident on Leinster lock Joe McCarthy did little to slow Bordeaux; Leinster managed only one try during Lucu’s time in the sin bin, with McCarthy diving over for a score that remained the only Irish points of the opening 40 minutes. Speaking after the match, Bordeaux assistant coach Noel McNamara highlighted the team’s hunger to back up last year’s Champions Cup win, drawing inspiration from golf legend Rory McIlroy to motivate the squad ahead of the knockout rounds. “We spoke about Rory McIlroy in the lead-up to the quarterfinal against Toulouse. Good players win one green jacket, great players win two. We have fantastic players. They made the decision that one Champions Cup is not enough,” McNamara told the BBC. Leinster captain Caelan Doris credited Bordeaux’s dominant first-half display as the difference in the match. “You have to credit Bordeaux. Some of their attack in the first half was incredibly hard to deal with,” Doris told Premier Sports after the full-time whistle. The result extends a painful run of final heartbreak for Leinster, which has now lost five Champions Cup finals since claiming its fourth and most recent European title in 2018, falling once again to the dominant French side that have ruled European club rugby for the past half-decade.
Bordeaux rout Leinster in Champions Cup final and seal a French treble of European titles
