Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s stunning first try of two highlighted Bordeaux Bègles’ 35-18 win over Top 14 rivals Toulouse as they set up a Champions Cup final meeting with Northampton. Saints stunned Leinster in Saturday’s first semi-final.
Bordeaux had raced into a 10-0 lead with a try from Pete Samu and a Matthieu Jalibert penalty, but Toulouse edged 11-10 up with a pair of Juan Cruz Mallia penalties either side of Dimitri Delibes’s try.
However, Bielle-Biarrey then lit up the Matmut Atlantique with a moment of brilliance, somersaulting his way over the line after Romain Buros had burst through the Toulouse defence.
When the 21-year-old France wing scored a second just 19 seconds into the second half, Jalibert converted for a 25-11 lead but Pierre-Louis Barassi capitalised on a visit to the sin-bin for Marko Gazzotti to pull one back for Toulouse and inject some nerves into the finale.
Pierre Bochaton powered over for a fourth Bordeaux try in the 64th minute and Ben Tameifuna added a late fifth to put Bordeaux into their first Champions Cup final, to be played in Cardiff on 24 May.
“They had a 10-minute spell of domination and we did not crack. We’re so happy to qualify in front of our fans as we’ve been through very tough moments,” said Jalibert, referring to Toulouse’s 59-3 win against Bordeaux in the Top 14 final last season.
In the Challenge Cup, Owen Farrell’s hopes of being selected for the British & Irish Lions squad to tour Australia were dealt a blow after he suffered a head injury for Racing 92 in his side’s 29-15 semi-final defeat by Lyon. Farrell, selected at inside-centre for the first time this season instead of his usual fly-half position, was forced off after just 19 minutes with the score at 0-0.
The 33-year-old England fly-half took a hit to the head from Mickaël Guillard’s hip as he attempted to tackle his opponent.
Farrell is a three-time Lions tourist and was in contention for a place in father Andy’s squad for this summer even though his debut season at Racing 92 has been affected by a groin injury. A 37-man Lions squad will be named on Thursday.
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Following Farrell’s departure, Léo Berdeu kicked the first of five penalties to open the scoring for hosts Lyon before Vincent Rattez registered their first try.
Diego Escobar and Kleo Labarbe both touched down for Racing either side of Beka Saghinadze crossing for Lyon’s second try, but it was Berdeu’s kicking which made the difference and set up a Challenge Cup final clash against Bath on 23 May.