Bordeaux star ‘not surprised’ by ‘amazing’ Northampton and reveals crucial area of ‘dominance’ against Toulouse
Bordeaux and Los Pumas star Guido Petti and an inset of Tommy Freeman.
Los Pumas flanker Guido Petti was full of praise for the brilliance of his own backline as Bordeaux claimed a spot in the Investec Champions Cup final, downing title holders Toulouse.
Petti pointed to the way that Bordeaux had targeted the Toulouse breakdown dominance as key to his team’s historic win at Matmut Atlantique, claiming a 35-18 victory.
Breakdown battle
The 87-cap Test veteran said Bordeaux were patently aware of the dominance that the Toulouse back-row need to strut their magic and that all of the talk in the lead-up was how UBB could react to that and turn it to an advantage.
“We knew the point of contact was really the key of the match. And yes, we knew they had players like Jack Willis, Julien Marchand and Francois Cros and that they wanted to steal every f***ing ball going in every breakdown and in the point of contact,” Petti explained.
“So this became a main focus for us and the key was our timing. It was about the speed to own the space and to get into the carrier at the exact moment he received the ball.
“You saw that work early on against Emmanuel Meafou – his dropped ball that went into transition and then Matthieu Jalibert works his magic and we go seven up at the other end of the pitch – but the catalyst from that was the hit and the timing of the tackle on Emmanuel that turned the ball over initially.
“And we also wanted to be stronger with our back-rows and our centres also getting to fight for the goals in the point of contact. And I think in this battle, we came out as the winner – which says a lot about the timing I spoke about. And also we knew that we needed to have the ball to play and leave our superstars in the backline to enjoy and express themselves.
“I think when we get to dominate the point of contact rugby becomes a much easier job and that helps us greatly for sure.”
Amazing Northampton
He added: “That came from that timing piece I referred to, real precision hits precisely at the right moment, and that got us proper front foot momentum.”
Petti and his cronies now have a date with Northampton Saints in the final in Cardiff on May 24. Petti admits that the result surprised him and his UBB colleagues, but he remains very circumspect as to the challenge the East Midlands outfit will pose.
“We need to prepare again. We know Northampton is a great team and we’ve seen it yesterday,” he said.
“They dominated the Leinster breakdown and were really good with their defence. You can see the amazing players that they have, and also as a team, they work with a real emotional bond.
“I think it’s not a surprise – we saw them along all of the Champions Cup, and they are a tough customer for us. So we need to prepare the best match possible to get to play this final, and hopefully, we will have it in us to go all the way.”
