Chapter 1: What are the key matchups to watch in the Champions Cup final?
We're going to have a very busy last word on sport tomorrow with soccer, Gaelic football and hurling so we decided
to bring the rugby forward to tonight, to look forward to tomorrow night's Challenge Cup final when Ulster play Montpellier, but to start Saturday afternoon's Champions Cup final when Leinster play Bordeaux-Begley. We're joined by former Leinster captain Liam Toland, by former Leinster coach Matt Williams.
And Liam, I'm going to fall back on an old cliché from rugby, that forwards win matches and backs decide by how much. Given that Leinster are playing, with the exception of Tygburn, the entire Irish pack, and given how good the Irish international team is, shouldn't that Leinster pack be good enough to set the platform for Leinster to win this game?
Yeah, I think the way I'd answer that, Matt, is that I would say that Leinster pack is good enough to create doubt in the minds of the supporters from France and obviously Bordeaux. And a notable place to start, we haven't seen the team sheets, but
If Peno is an example, who's a swashbuckling winger, if he starts in the 13 jersey, there's an opportunity to create significant doubt in what Bordeaux... Remember now, Bordeaux have beaten Toulouse three times this season. Bordeaux have, on every metric, are one of the best teams to ever play the game. So this is a brutally tough fixture for...
Leinster, but I think that concept of creating doubt is where Leinster need to go. And I think you're right. The pack, like you think of the players who weren't there at the start of the season had been out like Hugo Keane and Porter Joe McCarthy. They're like fresh signings into the, into the Leinster team and a team that has struggled maybe with this identity throughout the season.
But it's kind of coming in in a place where these fresh players are coming in. And McCarthy is an example. Like, how brutal and physical and violent he can be, to answer your question, is of huge importance for the fixture on Saturday.
Okay, but Matt Williams, I want to stay with the Leinster pack. I mean, there is... sort of speculation as to will Thomas Clarkson be in ahead of Tyke Furlong, but then what a player to be able to bring from the bench if Tyke Furlong is there.
Yes, the likes of RG Snydam and Ryan Baird are missing because of injury, but still, isn't there such strength in that Leinster pack, the Irish pack, that it should be expected to dominate a club pack?
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Chapter 2: How does Leinster's pack compare to Bordeaux's?
I've read it's going to be 28 degrees down there. They're playing. It's not a night game. Ulster have a night game tomorrow, but this is late afternoon. They will get some shade in that stadium. I've been there before, but it is still going to be a challenge because let's even suggest that that pack can dominate enough to dominate possession, which they have done in the past.
As Liam said, Bordeaux have... dominated the last semi-final, for example, against Bath. They lost the possession by a significant margin. I think Bath had 64% possession. But they still outscored them completely. And this Bordeaux team scores lots of long-range tries from set plays.
So while that is an argument, Matt, and a valid one, and that's got to be Leinster's strength, it's still not enough for us to say that... Bordeaux are anything but favourites for this game, which is a very, very strange mindset for Leinster to go into a final with. I think it's still pretty factual.
For those who haven't been following closely enough, what makes this Bordeaux-Begley team so good, which makes them the favourites, Matt? You've already seen a lot of them in France.
Yeah, Matt, what they can do, they've got two significant factors. They've got an absolutely extraordinary pace out wide, which is Bill Berry especially, and as Liam again said, Pano, but they have been playing Pano at outside centre. We can come back to that defensively later on. But they've got exceptional pace out wide.
And then their halves, Maxime Lecou, who's a scrum half, and Matthew Jellebert, who's their 10th, have fantastic passing skills. They're both in great form, but they also possess probably some of the best short-kicking games in world rugby. So they're getting the ball to their wingers either by passing or off their boot with exceptional accuracy and great vision.
And what Leinster's defence does, it becomes very compact and comes up, puts a lot of pressure on you, but it does leave space out wide, and that's where they're vulnerable.
So when you put that combination of a Leinster defence that is compact and comes up hard with a Bordeaux attack that has exceptional, I mean exceptional, best-in-world pace, with the ability to get the ball to those guys very, very efficiently, that expels trouble for Leinster.
Okay, what's your assessment, Liam, of this defensive system that Nian Barr has brought in in recent years in Leinster and its suitability for playing a game like tomorrow's final when, you know, there is a risk when you shoot up and you miss, you've left enormous space for Bordeaux to exploit?
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Chapter 3: What strengths does Bordeaux bring to the final?
I don't think they will. And for all the reasons Liam said, I really want Leinster to kill this dragon and win.
Thank you very much, Matt Williams and Liam Toland.