Why review of ‘cold-blooded score’ told Stuart Barnes more about ‘killer finisher’ Louis Bielle-Biarrey than his ‘pure poetry’ running

Stuart Barnes has suggested that Northampton’s task in next Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup final isn’t about stopping Louis Bielle-Biarrey from scoring, it’s more a challenge of keeping the Bordeaux finisher’s tally down.

The French club qualified for their first European final by dethroning 2024 champions Toulouse in the semi-finals earlier this month. Bielle-Biarrey, who helped France to 2025 Guinness Six Nations Grand Slam glory with his scoring exploits in the spring, chipped in with two tries to help his side book their ticket to take on the Saints in Cardiff.

Bielle-Biarrey’s early second-half try from a counter-attack initiated from deep inside his team’s half grabbed the plaudits in the immediate aftermath of the 35-18 win, but a review of the match has left retired England fly-half Barnes saluting the finish the winger produced in the 22nd minute of the match to nudge Bordeaux 15-11 ahead.

Predator

Previewing the upcoming 2025 final in his latest Sunday Times column, Barnes wrote: “The killer finisher with the angelic look has scored 18 tries in 19 Test matches. He is a predator. In the semi-final against an admittedly below-strength Toulouse and – admittedly – in Bordeaux, his two tries were crucial in securing his club a trip to Cardiff.

“His second try, when he combined an outside break with a hand-off and the most intelligent of running was pure poetry. I was supporting Toulouse from the sofa that Sunday but it was impossible not to scream with joy as Bordeaux spreadeagled Toulouse the length of the field, spearheaded by the 2025 Six Nations player of the season.

“Yet, watching the game again, it was his dramatic somersault score that tells more about the untrammelled threat posed by the 21-year-old. Television directors love an acrobatic finish. It wasn’t that many years ago that commentators purred when a left wing would tuck the ball under his left arm to free his right for fend.

“The professional evolution of the wing as finisher has followed in rugby league’s footsteps with once unheard of dazzling touch downs, the body almost hovering mid-air as the ball is planted in goal. But this try was different.

Nothing flash about it

“The full-on somersault isn’t a celebration, there’s nothing flash about it. As he dived for the line, the ball was the nearest part of the man to the ground. Then the arms and head. The torso was way above the average tackle height and the legs, reaching up to the Bordeaux sky, were impossible to target.

“There was, quite literally, nothing to tackle. Any attempt would have constituted a dangerous challenge on the upside-down man and a penalty try. The finish wasn’t anything to do with razzmatazz. This was a brilliantly rehearsed moment. A cold-blooded score.

“Sprinting, supporting ball carriers or in the act of somersaulting over the line, Bielle-Biarrey is all but impossible to stop from scoring in the course of the game. It’s more a question of keeping his tally down.”

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