Bordeaux-Bègles eliminated from the Champions Cup by Harlequins after a crazy match

Cruel exit for the UBB. Trailing 28-12 after a failed first half, the Bordelais delivered a second act of better quality to recover the slope against the Harlequins at Chaban-Delmas. The Girondins even went ahead in the 66th (36-35) and could have won with a transformation from Lucu in the 78th (41-42). But the Bordelais stopped in the quarter-finals.

A cruel scenario at the end of a completely crazy match with twelve tries scored, six on each side!

Between two teams with very similar profiles, it was the Harlequins who immediately set the pace of the match by depriving their opponent of balls. They advance, win collisions, find themselves and are quickly rewarded. The UBB is trapped on the first English incursion. Esterhuizen escapes on the short side along the sideline, avoids Lucu’s tackle and passes to his scrum half Porter for the opener (3rd).

A few minutes later, Harlequins did it again. On a breakthrough by Beard, the ball is kept. Smith is served and looks for Beard on the outside but Garcia commits a voluntary forward. Logical sanction: penalty try and yellow card for the Bordeaux opener.

At the start of the match played in a temperature of over 30 degrees, the Bordelais are not there, struggling to keep the ball, hampered by English aggressiveness and too many hand faults to ensure continuity in their game However, they will react with a try from Lucu in the 20th minute following a ball carried by the Girondins.

These first points wake up the UBB which scores a second try by Buros. The Girondins think they have done the hardest part and got back on track after a very complicated start to the match. But the Quins, confident, efficient and increasingly dominant in the scrum, will plant two new tries before the break by Porter and Evans to take the lead (12-28).

The offensive festival will continue and the two teams go blow for blow without ever closing the game. The Bordelais finally win in the collisions and are rewarded with a try from Depoortère. But the English did not give up and scored a try by Dombrandt on a carried ball.

The match is going crazy. Buros shifts gears. He pierces the English defense and finds Bielle-Biarrey at the conclusion. Then he launches Tambwe who flattens between the posts to give the advantage for the first time to UBB (36-35 in the 65th). Riley believes he is giving his team the advantage again on a copy of Dombrandt’s try but the referee refuses it. On the other hand, that of Green three minutes later, the 6th for the English, is perfectly valid and restores six points in advance. Until Tambwe scored his double which Lucu unfortunately did not convert.

Harlequins won by one point and reached the last four of the Champions Cup for the first time. They will face the winner of the match between Toulouse and Exeter.

Fact of the match: Lucu’s failed transformation

There are less than five minutes left to play. Green, scoring a sixth try, gave Harlequins a six-point lead. But this match is crazy until the end. Served on the outside, Tambwe breaks away and escapes two tackles to flatten as close as possible to the posts. The score is 41-42 for the English. If Maxime Lucu transforms, the UBB goes back in front. Although he missed the first conversion of the match, he has since performed flawlessly. But he fails and Bordeaux will die one point away from happiness.

The number: 83

This is the number of points scored with twelve tries scored, a record in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The previous record dates back to 2006 and a Leinster victory in Toulouse 35-41.