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H. Avogadro (9'), H. Reus (34'), M. Lamothe (47'), T. Willis (54'), A. Retiere (67'), D. Penaud (71')
Tries
M. Ibo (14')
M. Lucu (36'), H. Reus (48', 54', 68', 71')
Conversions
L. Foursans-Bourdette (15')
Penalties
L. Foursans-Bourdette (7')
This was less about catharsis after Toulouse and more about clarity. Union Bordeaux Bègles didn’t rip up anything; they tightened up, trusted their set piece despite missing front-row pillars, and let their strike runners finish the job. The scoreline swelled late, but the control that produced it was there much earlier — even while down a man.
For a game that sat 12–10 at the break, the gap in how both sides used possession was stark. Stade Français carried danger in the open field and looked comfortable enough in the first quarter, but their discipline and platform deteriorated after half-time. Bordeaux, by contrast, found a reliable lineout, a steady scrum and a bench that accelerated the pace. That’s why a contest turned into a canter.
The hinge was psychological as much as tactical. When Damian Penaud went to the bin on the half hour, Bordeaux didn’t concede; instead, they scored through Hugo Reus to take the lead before half-time. From there, the hosts looked calmer and more assured in every 50–50. Stade had started with a penalty and a sharp finish from Mathis Ibo, but they never again forced the game on their terms.
Reus deserves top billing. On early for Matthieu Jalibert, he didn’t just steer; he punched. A first-half try, then four from four off the tee after the break — all while keeping tempo high and the corners sensible. Behind him, Tom Willis gave Bordeaux the gain-line cadence they’d lacked in Toulouse: 16 carries, a try, a couple of clean offloads, and 10 tackles for good measure. It wasn’t flashy. It was relentless.
Up front, context matters. With Poirot, Tameifuna, Sadie and Pkhakadze unavailable pre-match, you could have expected wobble. Instead, Sipili Falatea, Matis Perchaud and Maxime Lamothe produced a tidy night: 100% on their own scrum feed and 17/20 at the lineout, Lamothe adding a close-range finish just after the interval that broke Stade’s grip on the arm wrestle. That sequence — set-piece security into scoreboard pressure — is what prised the game open.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The numbers underline the feel of it. Bordeaux made far more carries and asked Stade to make 179 tackles, a workload that inevitably frayed their line integrity in the final quarter. Stade conceded 15 penalties and lost two scrums; they were always going to struggle to keep Yoram Moefana, Nicolas Depoortere and, off the bench, Arthur Retière and Penaud out once the rucks got quick. Retière’s injection at 55 minutes told: he beat three and finished one, and the last two tries came with Paris chasing shadows.
This wasn’t perfect from Bordeaux. They coughed up 20 turnovers and were loose in back-field security at times — Hugo Avogadro mixed a fine 94-metre, try-scoring night with risky touches that won’t all survive tighter opposition. Maxime Lucu forced a few plays as well. But the defence held when Penaud sat down, and the red-zone conversion rate in the second half — four visits, four tries by the look of it — was clinical enough to drown the errors.
Stade will be honest with themselves. The backline carried threat — Ibo, Jeremy Ward, Julien Delbouis and Lester Etien all punched holes — but it never connected to their forwards after the break. The decision to replace Louis Foursans-Bourdette before the final quarter stripped them of their starter at 10 just as composure was required, and too many possessions bled away through penalties or a slipping scrum. Their back-row worked (18 tackles for Pierre Huguet, 17 for Mathieu Hirigoyen), yet it was firefighting, not momentum.
Individually, there were wins in pink. Ibo’s finish and 81 metres showed he belongs against premium wings; Ihaia West defended stoutly from the back; Pierre-Henri Azagoh emptied the tank. But 15 concessions is a lot on the road and two lost scrums is a tax you rarely absorb away to Chaban. Even allowing for how late the scoreboard stretched, 40–10 did not flatter Bordeaux’s control of the contest.
What next? For Bordeaux, this felt like a grown-up response to a bad week. Reus has put a proper marker down as a match-manager with bite, the pack showed they can function without their headline props, and the strike three of Avogadro, Retière and Penaud will score plenty if the set piece keeps them in the right areas. The work-ons are obvious: tighten the ball security and cut the soft penalties, because better sides won’t let you reset so easily.
For Stade, the ambition remains credible, but title talk needs ballast in the nuts and bolts. They have athletes to burn, yet their accuracy at the breakdown, exit choices under pressure and scrum cohesion deserted them when the game asked hard questions. Fix those and the metres their centres made here will start to turn into points. Leave them alone and nights like this — close for an hour, gone in 15 — will keep biting.
