{"id":237104,"date":"2026-01-10T02:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/237104\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T02:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:34:08","slug":"champions-cup-stays-relevant-with-sprinkling-of-blockbuster-matchups-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/237104\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup stays relevant with sprinkling of blockbuster matchups \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EPCR, and especially the unholy Anglo-French alliance, may have done untold damage since their coup ousted the old Heineken Cup organisers ERC, and the competition continues to muddle along imperfectly. But as long as there are clashes like Leinster<\/a> v La Rochelle and Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles v Northampton on successive days, the competition will always bring a unique vibrancy to the rugby season.<\/p>\n

The Saturday evening clash between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 5.30pm) is a repeat of the 2022 and 2023 finals, while Bordeaux-Northampton clash at a sold-out Stade Chaban Delmas on Sunday (kick-off 3.15pm) is a reprise of last May\u2019s decider at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. <\/p>\n

After the blight of weakened sides being fielded in the pool and Round of 16 stages, with even three-time champions Saracens culpable of this last season, it\u2019s a welcome relief, although not especially surprising that La Rochelle and Northampton are both travelling with full-strength teams allowing for injuries. <\/p>\n

In an antidote to the box-kicking, scrum-dominated rugby which has become de rigueur, both Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles and Northampton mix power aplenty with brilliant bands of potent, running rugby. The former\u2019s hitherto ho-hum season was also ignited by the opening rounds of their Champions Cup defence, taking a full-strength team to Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria and recovering from a 33-22 half-time deficit to win thrillingly by 46-33. <\/p>\n

A week later they put 50 on the Scarlets, following which they took home wins over Toulon and Racing 92 either side of a loss away to Clermont. Of course, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud are scoring tries for fun, and perhaps one of the contributory factors in Joey Carbery potentially coming home<\/a> is that the brilliant Matthieu Jalibert has taken his form to another level since his match-winning display in last season\u2019s final against Northampton.<\/p>\n

His attacking game has been sensational, contributing seven tries in his dozen games this season, a ridiculous strike rate for an outhalf.<\/p>\n

Despite several injuries, Northampton really extended the French side last May in Cardiff and arrive not only seeking revenge, but with a stronger team than they had for that final. Over the festive period, they stormed Bath\u2019s citadel at the Rec despite resting several frontliners and last week ran in 10 tries at home to Harlequins.<\/p>\n

Their all-round running game between backs and forwards, with the impish Alex Mitchell (playing a far different game than he does for England) and Finn Smith pulling the strings, is a point of difference. With Lions winger Tommy Freeman now at 13, their outside three also have pace to burn. <\/p>\n

Adding to it all, the two teams sit atop Pool 4 both with the maximum 10 points, so the outcome of Sunday\u2019s game will have serious consequences for the knockout stages. This could be special, not least for French audiences.<\/p>\n

In the last two rounds of the Top 14 there have, predictably, been 13 home wins. Of those results, five teams put up 60 points or more. This included Toulouse\u2019s 60-14 win over La Rochelle and La Rochelle\u2019s 60-0 victory over Toulon, both of which were shown on terrestrial television.<\/p>\n

In France, they understand the value of reaching out to a bigger audience, and Sunday\u2019s clash, dubbed \u2018The Rematch\u2019 in Bordeaux, has been chosen by France TV as the round three game to be shown on terrestrial television, which can only be a significant upgrade on those two bloodless Top 14 coups. <\/p>\n

As in last May\u2019s final, it even had its pantomime villain in Henry Pollock, who has been recalled after being rested last week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve not been to Bordeaux since 1997\/98. It\u2019s a great stadium with 34,000, it\u2019s a sell-out. Everyone hates Henry Pollock, it\u2019s going to create an exciting atmosphere,\u201d said Northampton\u2019s director of rugby, Phil Dowson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the challenges to go to those places. We want to go and see how we measure up against those teams at the top of the Top 14 and the top of the URC, who play in iconic stadiums, and Bordeaux probably qualify,\u201d Dowson added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we tried to create when we got to the semi-final (last season) against Leinster was the enjoyment of going to the best places in the world to play rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had said at the front end (of the season) that we are playing Glasgow away, they had finished top of the URC the year before, had been unbeaten there for a long period of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going to have a night out afterwards, so the best way to enjoy that was to put in a good performance. Then Munster \u2013 Thomond Park is one of the best places I ever played. The atmosphere there and Limerick afterwards, the buzz you get is outstanding, so I said the best way to enjoy that is to win there, which I never did \u2013 mainly down to Ronan O\u2019Gara.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the players have jumped on that and enjoyed playing in the best places\u201d<\/p>\n

The pity is that not one game, not even this mouth-watering Bordeaux-Northampton tie, is on free-to-air television in Ireland this weekend. Nor indeed will any Champions Cup game be screened on free-to-air channels this season or next. In this the EPCR and its stakeholders, including the IRFU, but also RT\u00c9 and Virgin Media for offering peanuts or nothing at all for broadcasting rights, have let down Irish rugby and its supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EPCR, and especially the unholy Anglo-French alliance, may have done untold damage since their coup ousted the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,63463,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-237104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-the-counter-ruck","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}