Fresh, novel pairing to Champions Cup final as Leinster wonder what might have been

Champions Cup final: Northampton Saints v Bordeaux Bègles, Principality Stadium; Saturday, 2.45pm (live on RTÉ2 and Premier Sports)

The sense of anticlimax, of what-might-have-been, will not be confined to bars and homes in the province of Leinster. It was palpable on the plane over, in the streets around Cardiff, when Northampton conducted their eve-of-match press conference and there may well be more Leinster blue in the enclosed stadium than the estimated 3,000 clad in claret supporting Union Bordeaux Bègles.

After all, this will be the first final in four seasons, and just the third in the last eight, not to feature Leinster. The last hurdle has been acutely painful for them but to fall short in their magnificent obsession at the penultimate stage has hurt even more, and this final will only compound those scars.

Still, the 30th Champions Cup final has a fresh, novel pairing. Northampton, winners in 2000 and runners-up against Leinster in 2011, against first-time finalists Bordeaux Bègles. It’s generously sprinkled in star dust too.

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Fresh, novel pairing to Champions Cup final as Leinster wonder what might have been

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With Damian Penaud having recovered from the ankle injury which left him in tears at the end of the 35-18 semi-final win over Toulouse three weeks ago, UBB revert to the same starting XV from that game.

Alas for Joey Carbery, an unused replacement in Leinster’s win over Racing 92 in Bilbao seven years ago, despite his versatility he loses out on the bench to the impactful Rohan Janse van Rensburg, with scrumhalf Maxime Lucu instead providing cover for Matthieu Jalibert.

Bordeaux's Joey Carbery. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho

Northampton welcome back George Furbank, albeit he has only played once since December due to a broken arm, with James Ramm (a try-scoring fullback in that win three weeks ago) shifting to the wing. But the Ulster-bound number eight Juarno Augustus is sidelined with the ankle ligament injury he sustained in training before last week’s win over Saracens.

So Tom Lockett starts at lock, with Alex Coles shifting to a reconfigured backrow with Henry Pollock at number eight, while Ollie Sleightholme returns from an ankle injury on the bench. Even so, there is still more of a patchwork feel to the Saints.

UBB recruited well last summer and have been able to rotate from a position of strength to ensure they arrive at this stage of the season relatively fit and fresh – witness Carbery missing out despite overcoming a three-month absence to play 20 games this season.

Five of the previous 29 finals have had no tries over the 80 minutes, but with so much cutting edge and world-class finishers on display, and the roof closed to block out the rain, even allowing for a degree of tension and nerves, there’ll surely be tries aplenty.

Between them, UBB (50 in seven games) and Northampton (39) have scored 89 tries in reaching this final. Tommy Freeman and Penaud have both scored 21 this season for club and country, including nine and a record 12 for Penaud in this competition. The jet-heeled Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who looked equally unplayable in UBB’s game of tip rugby at their Captain’s Run, has scored 31 tries in 26 games for club and country in this campaign.

And then there’s Henry Pollock, who said this week that he and his team-mates can’t wait to “rip into” this final. To the boy’s credit, he walks the walk too, and six of his seven tries in this competition, celebrated in his own inimitably teasing way, have been against French sides.

“We love him, I’m not sure who hates him,” said the Northampton Director of Rugby Phil Dowson when asked about the ‘love-hate’ view from France of the extravagantly talented 20-year-old backrower.

“He’s confident and he’s unashamedly himself,” said Dowson. “He’s one of these guys you’d love to have in your team and hate to play against.”

This Northampton side loom as dangerously for UBB as they did for Leinster in the semi-finals. In the last two seasons, the English champions have demonstrated their big-game mentality by winning seven of their last eight knockout ties. The only exception was last season’s 20-17 Champions Cup semi-final defeat against Leinster in Croke Park.

Yet having watched UBB dismantle Ulster and Northampton at first hand, and most of all do the same to Toulouse, the sheer unrelenting ferocity of their pack which was just as eye-catching as their stardust. There was the running games of hooker Maxime Lamothe and number eight Pete Samu, as well as the workrate and endurance of lock Cyril Cazeaux and flanker Guido Petti (both of whom have played every minute of the knockout stages despite 6-2 splits).

That and Jalibert, who is on fire and looks primed to join the long list of stellar European Cup-winning outhalves.

Northampton Saints: George Furbank, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall (capt), Rory Hutchinson, James Ramm, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Emmanuel Iyogun, Curtis Langdon, Trevor Davison, Temo Mayanavanua, Tom Lockett, Alex Coles, Josh Kemeny, Henry Pollock.

Replacements: Craig Wright, Tarek Haffar, Elliot Millar-Mills, Ed Prowse, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Ollie Sleightholme.

Bordeaux Bègles: Romain Buros, Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Sipili Falatea, Adam Coleman, Cyril Cazeaux, Mahamadou Diaby, Guido Petti, Pete Samu.

Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg.

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo).

Forecast: Bordeaux Bègles to win.