The joys of Bordeaux and the genius of Jalibert

The 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup tournament has belonged individually to Matthieu Jalibert of Bordeaux Bègles. The French No 10 has produced 10-star performances. He was inspirational in Bordeaux’s 38-26 semi-final win against Bath on Sunday.

Defending champions Bordeaux will play four-time champions Leinster in the final in Bilbao on the 23rd May.

Leinster beat Toulon 29-25 on Saturday in a pulsating and dramatic final few minutes.

On Sunday, there were no late dramas or heroics from Bath, but there was such class and genius from Jalibert in a Bordeaux performance befitting a team defending the title.

Jalibert has long lived in the shadow of Toulouse No 10 Romain Ntamack for the French National team. Equally, Bordeaux scrumhalf and captain Maxime Lucu, who is unfortunate to play in the Antoine Dupont era.

In this season’s Investec Champions Cup it has been the halfback pairing of Lucu and Jalibert that has worn the royal crown, eclipsing the national team first-choice halfback pairing, and any other halfback combination in the tournament.

Jalibert, from the opening round at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria when he danced through the Bulls defence, has been spellbinding in bamboozling defences.

On Sunday, Jalibert made a match high 139 attack metres, four offloads, five line breaks, 20 carries, 16 passes, nine tackles, nine kicks and beat eight defenders.

Jalibert is a joy to watch, as is this Bordeaux team. They are the best club team in the world.

Bordeaux, winners of the 2024/25 title were up against England’s Premiership Champions and winners of the 2024/25 EPCR Challenge Cup Bath.

For all Bath’s progress and improvements since Johann van Graan restored pride to the once-mighty club, they were always second best to the hosts.

Bath are a very good side and they kept pace with Bordeaux for the opening 30 minutes, but the champions are an exceptional side.

Bath’s late seven pointer narrowed the differential to 12 but the win was closer to the 20 points in performance and dominance than 10.

This is no sleight on Bath, but a compliment to the quality of Bordeaux.

Springboks hopeful Carlu Sadie started at tighthead for Bordeaux, as did Springboks incumbent Thomas du Toit for Bath. Both were very good, which is great news for Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus.

Sadie, in his 51 minutes, made 17 tackles and four carries.

Du Toit, in 73 minutes, made the most carries for Bath (16) and the second most tackles (8).

Van Graan, as coach misses out on the challenge of facing fellow South African coach Jacques Nienaber in the final, but Van Graan and Nienaber, at Leinster, are great ambassadors to South African rugby.

Former Springboks turned Frenchman Shaun Sowerby and Heinie Adams are part of the Bordeaux coaching set-up and a huge shout out to them. Both are proud South Africans but both have embraced France as home for nearly 20 years, having enjoyed wonderful club careers in France.

Adams played 60 matches for Bordeaux at scrumhalf and Sowerby played 50 matches for Stade Francais and 113 for Toulouse before finishing his playing career at Grenoble.

Lucu and Jalibert are the conductors of this Bordeaux orchestra but no Bordeaux and French match is complete without the mention of winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey  He is Out of the Ordinary.

The Bordeaux pack is world-class, with flankers Pierre Bochaton, Cameron Woki and No 8 Marko Gazzotti imposing and powerful. The trio combined for 50 tackles and Woki was the mainstay line out ball winner with seven takes.

Lock Adam Coleman made a match high 21 tackles and won three line out balls.

The match statistics are remarkable, with Bordeaux making 18 line breaks and 18 offloads with just 38 percent of possession. Bath made just five line breaks and seven offloads, despite enjoying 62 percent possession.

Bordeaux beat 35 defenders to Bath’s 21 and made 474 attack metres to Bath’s 420.

According to the EPCR Match Statistics, Bordeaux made 198 tackles to 80 and missed 21 to Bath’s recorded 35 missed tackles.

Investec Champions Cup Final 2026

Leinster Rugby vs Union Bordeaux Bègles – Saturday 23 May 2026, 14:45 BST, San Mamès Stadium, Bilbao