Saracens dumped out of Champions Cup by rampant Bordeaux-Begles in era-ending defeat

Bordeaux-Begles made a statement of intent as they dumped Saracens out of the Investec Champions Cup, running out 45-12 winners at Stade Chaban-Delmas on Saturday.

The French side were too good for the former champions as they ran in six tries, with Mateo Garcia, Nicolas Depoortere and Louis Bielle-Biarrey grabbing two apiece.

Saracens were kept scoreless for much of the game as they came off second best, with only late tries from Alex Lewington and Tom Willis sparing the team’s blushes.

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Both sides were without key men at fly-half, Owen Farrell for Saracens and Matthieu Jalibert for Bordeaux.

Bordeaux also had the confidence of putting 55 points on their English opponents in the pool stages, showing their early threat with wing Bielle-Biarrey and prop Ben Tameifuna both coming within inches of scoring tries.

Bielle-Biarrey ran out of space following a kick, while Tameifuna could not quite ground the ball over the line, a forward pass by Damian Penaud meant a third effort was also called back after full-back Romain Buros had crossed the line.

That meant Saracens were the bounce of a ball away from opening the scoring when an Alex Goode grubber evaded wing Lewington, before Bordeaux were again denied by the TMO, who adjudged crossing had provided space for Bielle-Biarrey to go over.

It all meant it took around half-an-hour to open the scoring, Maxime Lucu taking a simple penalty chance following a Saracens offside, before another TMO decision prevented a Bordeaux try from the kick off.

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The visitors lost lock Maro Itoje for 10 minutes following a deliberate knock on and that allowed Bordeaux to register their first counting try of the game, Buros making the break out wide and fly-half Garcia picking up and finishing off.

Goode had the chance to whittle down that lead with a penalty at the start of the second half, but he hit the outside of the post from 40 yards.

Instead the breaks suddenly went the way of Bordeaux, number eight Tevita Tatafu managing to keep the ball alive before going to touch, the ball ricocheting off the knee of defender Ben Earl and being touched down over the line by Garcia.

Bordeaux snuffed out any remaining hope for the visitors as scrum power put Saracens on the back foot, allowing Garcia and right wing Penaud to combine to put centre Depoortere under the posts.

Bielle-Biarrey soon added a fourth from a loose ball bouncing off the head of centre Yoram Moefana, Lucu maintaining his perfect kicking record.

With the result in the bag Depoortere added his second from a slick tap penalty move, before Lewington grabbed a consolation try for the English team.

Bielle-Biarrey added his second to rub salt in the Saracens wounds, Willis responding for the away side but it was too little too late.

The teams

Bordeaux: 15 Romain Buros, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Nicolas Depoortere, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matéo Garcia, 9 Maxime Lucu (c), 8 Tevita Tatafu, 7 Pete Samu, 6 Antoine Miquel, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Cyril Cazeaux, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 1 Jefferson Poirot
Replacements: 16 Romain Latterrade, 17 Lekso Kaulashvili, 18 Carlu Sadie, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Thomas Jolmes, 21 Guido Petti, 22 Yann Lesgourgues, 23 Pablo Uberti

Saracens: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Alex Goode, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Theo McFarland, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Christian Judge, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Mako Vunipola
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Eroni Mawi, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 20 Tom Willis, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Manu Vunipola, 23 Olly Hartley

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRE)
Assistant Referees: Eoghan Cros (IRE), Andrew Cole (IRE)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRE)

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