{"id":240437,"date":"2026-01-12T03:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240437\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T03:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T03:18:10","slug":"toulouse-shocked-by-saracens-as-bordeaux-thrash-northampton-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240437\/","title":{"rendered":"Toulouse shocked by Saracens as Bordeaux thrash Northampton \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northampton were brought back down to earth after they suffered a 50-28 loss away to Champions Cup<\/a> holders Bordeaux B\u00e8gles in a repeat of last season\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

Northampton are already through to the next round after two wins in the competition and despite a double by Henry Pollock, they lost for the first time in Europe this season.<\/p>\n

Champions Bordeaux crossed over eight times in a scintillating display, but Northampton were able to leave with a bonus point.<\/p>\n

A ding-dong battle in a repeat of the 2025 showpiece appeared on the cards when Pollock instantly replied in the 10th minute to the first try by Bordeaux wing Salesi Rayasi.<\/p>\n

Ill-discipline proved costly for Saints as a raft of first-half sinbins meant it was 24-7 to Bordeaux at the interval and Rayasi completed his treble two minutes after the restart.<\/p>\n

Cameron Woki joined Rayasi in scoring a hat-trick after he bundled over in the 50th minute. Pollock added to a Tommy Freeman score late on before Fischetti clinched a losing bonus point,<\/p>\n

Saracens produced a victory to rescue their season as they overcame Toulouse 20-14 in a heavyweight Champions Cup clash at StoneX Stadium.<\/p>\n

Two tries from Rotimi Segun and a third by Tom Willis placed Maro Itoje\u2019s team in command after they were in danger of being swept away by a full-blooded start from the six-time champions.<\/p>\n

It was another shaky night from Antoine Dupont\u2019s Toulouse who were humbled 28-21 by Glasgow in their last Champions Cup outing and the top 14 leaders look set for an away last 16 match should they make it there.<\/p>\n

Toulouse started well with Blair Kinghorn\u2019s 18th-minute try, but a lazy Dupont box kick launching a counter attack was finished by Segun in the left corner.<\/p>\n

Lozowski set up Segun up for his second try, a show and go sweeping him through the midfield before releasing his wing, who used his footwork to score. Then the excellent Willis muscled over in the right corner after a lineout drive, building a 17-7 interval lead.<\/p>\n

Toulouse\u2019s fightback began in the 47th minute when Matthis Lebel touched down in the left corner with Kinghorn, playing off a strong forward drive, releasing the wing with a long pass.<\/p>\n

Willis stopped a certain try with a turnover and Owen Farrell, who was back from a hamstring injury, landed a penalty to give Saracens the 20-14 win.<\/p>\n

\"Saracens'Saracens’ Owen Farrell. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Rampant Harlequins returned to form in style by blowing away previously unbeaten Stormers 61-10 at the Twickenham Stoop to secure their place in the Champions Cup knockout stages with one group game remaining.<\/p>\n

Stormers had won all their 10 competitive fixtures so far this season, two in this competition and eight in the United Rugby Championship, but left their first-choice team in Cape Town and paid the price with a desperately poor display.<\/p>\n

Quins, with Marcus Smith and Tyrone Green pulling the strings, scored nine tries. Nick David touched down for three of them, with Jack Kenningham, Cadan Murley, Alex Dombrandt, Chandler Cunningham-South, Zach Carr and Jarrod Evans bagging the others. Smith converted eight.<\/p>\n

Bristol ran riot in a remarkable first half to secure their place in the Champions Cup<\/a> knockout phase with a 61-49 victory over the Bulls in Pretoria. The South African hosts fielded 10 Springboks in their starting XV in the hope of registering a first win of the group campaign yet were still swept aside at Loftus Versfeld.<\/p>\n

Bristol started like a freight train, running in three tries inside the opening 10 minutes and seven in total to build a interval 47-28 lead. Noah Heward crossed twice and there were also touch downs for Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Max Lahiff, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Kieran Marmion.<\/p>\n

The Bulls offered more resistance in the second half but Bristol continued to fire shots with Heward completing his hat-trick, Pedro Rubiolo breaching the whitewash and Ravouvou running in his second.<\/p>\n

Glasgow, who staged a remarkable comeback to beat Toulouse in the last round of matches, were too strong for another French side, Clermont Auvergne, who were bottom of Pool 1 after losing their two openers.<\/p>\n

There were three more wins for English teams \u2013 Leicester Tigers, Bath and Sale \u2013 this weekend, while Pau and Edinburgh also secured victories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton were brought back down to earth after they suffered a 50-28 loss away to Champions Cup holders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[121811,121813,32728,42,43,40,38,41,39,121812],"class_list":{"0":"post-240437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-antoine-dupont","9":"tag-bordeaux-begles","10":"tag-champions-cup","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-toulouse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240437","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=240437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}