Bordeaux vs Hurricanes: Who Wins Rugby’s Unofficial World Club Title?

Bordeaux v Hurricanes. The Investec Champions Cup Kings of Europe and this season’s high flyers in Super Rugby Pacific. Who wins?

Bordeaux vs Hurricanes: Rugby’s Unofficial World Club winner

Using the matchday 23 that delivered Bordeaux’s Investec Champions Cup title and the Hurricanes side that beat the Blues in the Super Rugby Pacific semi-final, I went player-for-player to determine rugby’s unofficial world club champions.

Bordeaux Dominate The Tight Calls

The Hurricanes boast world-class talent.

Cam Roigard is the best scrumhalf in Super Rugby, Jordie Barrett remains one of the most complete backs in world rugby and Asafo Aumua is a wrecking ball at hooker.

Yet when the two squads line up Bordeaux’s depth and proven pedigree at the highest level become impossible to ignore.

The European champions claimed the loosehead and tighthead battles through Jefferson Poirot and South African powerhouse Carlu Sadie, while Adam Coleman and Boris Palu edged the lock contest.

The biggest difference came in the loose forwards.

Pierre Bochaton, Cameron Woki and Marko Gazzotti have been central to Bordeaux’s Champions Cup title defence. Against Brad Shields, Du’Plessis Kirifi and Peter Lakai, Bordeaux’s trio earned the nod and swung the contest decisively in favour of the French club. That combination decision was the toughest one. Both are very good as a trio. Individually, I rate the Bordeaux loose-forwards as better.

Roigard And Barrett Fly The Super Rugby Flag

The Hurricanes’ Super Rugby Pacific victories came through genuine world-class performers.

Aumua edged Maxime Lamothe at hooker and Roigard got the nod over Maxime Lucu at scrumhalf. This highlights the quality of Roigard because Lucu is the inspiration and general of Bordeaux and a fantastic player.

Jordie Barrett beats Yoram Moefana at inside centre and Josh Moorby’s outstanding season, in which he has scored 15 tries, saw him edge Pablo Uberti on the right wing.

But there were simply not enough wins elsewhere.

Bordeaux’s Backline Firepower

Matthieu Jalibert remains one of the game’s elite flyhalves and his experience beats the impressive Ruben Love. I thought he was consistently the best player throughout the competition. Jalibert did not win the official Player of the Tournament award, but his try in the quarter-final against Toulouse won the Out of Ordinary Photograph of the Competition.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey was an automatic selection on the left wing, regardless of the quality of the Canes left wing options. And they have wonderful No 11s, with Fehi Fineanganofo the best of them. He has equaled Super Rugby’s record for most tries in a season, with 16. Bielle-Biarrey, with 10 tries in eight matches, was the official Player of the Tournament. He was also the Six Nations Player of the Year and the top try scorer in the competition.

Damian Penaud’s all-round game is better at outside centre than Billy Proctor’s and Salesi Rayasi’s attacking impact from fullback completed a backline stacked with game-breakers.

Bordeaux vs Hurricanes: Rugby’s Unofficial World Club winner

The Bench Decides It

If the starting XV comparison was competitive, the benches were not.

Gaetan Barlot, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Lachie Swinton, Temo Matiu, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Arthur Retière and Hugo Reus gave Bordeaux a clean sweep among the replacements. I also prefer their 6 forwards and two backs split to the Canes’ traditional five forwards and three backs.

Retière’s versatility to play 9, wing and fullback also added to the potency of Bordeaux’s bench power.

The result was emphatic.

Bordeaux vs Hurricanes: Rugby’s Unofficial World Club winner

Final Score

Starting XV

Bordeaux 11
Hurricanes 4

Bench

Bordeaux 8
Hurricanes 0

Overall Matchday 23

Bordeaux 19
Hurricanes 4

Bordeaux vs Hurricanes: Rugby’s Unofficial World Club winner

Verdict – Bordeaux Are The Best

The Hurricanes possess several players capable of walking into any side in world rugby.

Bordeaux simply possess more of them.

The Champions Cup winners combine a world-class pack, an elite halfback pairing and arguably the most dangerous collection of attacking backs in the club game.

It would be an entertaining and high-scoring match, with plenty of tries, but I’d back Bordeaux’s superior Test-type game management and defensive mongrel to conquer the Canes.

For me, right now, they are the best club team in the world.

Union Bordeaux Bègles XV : 15. Salesi Rayasi, 14. Pablo Uberti, 13. Damian Penaud, 12. Yoram Moefana, 11. Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10. Matthieu Jalibert, 9. Maxime Lucu (c), 1. Jefferson Poirot, 2. Maxime Lamothe, 3. Carlü Sadie, 4. Boris Palu, 5. Adam Coleman, 6. Pierre Bochaton, 7. Cameron Woki, 8. Marko Gazzotti. Substitutes: 16. Gaetan Barlot, 17. Ugo Boniface, 18. Ben Tameifuna, 19. Lachie Swinton, 20. Temo Matiu, 21. Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 22. Arthur Retiere, 23. Hugo Reus

Hurricanes: 15 Callum Harkin, 14 Josh Moorby, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett (co-captain), 11 Fehi Fineanganofo, 10 Ruben Love, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Peter Lakai, 7 Du’Plessis Kirifi (co-captain), 6 Brad Shields, 5 Warner Dearns, 4 Caleb Delany, 3 Pasilio Tosi, 2 Asafo Aumua, 1 Xavier Numia. Substitutes: 16 Raymond Tuputupu, 17 Siale Lauaki, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Isaia Walker-Leawere, 20 Brayden Iose, 21 Ereatara Enari, 22 Jone Rova, 23 Kini Naholo.

*For those who argue that they can’t be if they only finished 8th in the Top 14, the counter-argument is they sacrificed the Top 14 this season to defend their Champions Cup title and add a second star to the club’s jersey.

The most revealing statistic is that Bordeaux went 9-4 at home and 5-8 away in the Top 14. They lost four home matches and eight away matches, yet still won the Investec Champions Cup.

The timeline is also important:

• They lost to Pau on 1 March.
• Beat Toulouse on 22 March.
• Won four straight Champions Cup knockout matches (Leicester, Toulouse, Bath, Leinster).
• During that same period they lost league matches to La Rochelle, Montpellier, Toulon and Clermont.

Bordeaux prioritised Europe and became champions of Europe, but their domestic campaign suffered.

Only a select elite (5 clubs) have won the Investec Champions Cup and their domestic league in the same season. The great Toulon team that won three successive Champions Cup titles managed just the one Top 14 title in those seasons.

No URC team, in the five years of the competition, has won the title and the Champions Cup.

No English team in the past five years has won the Prem and Champions Cup.

Toulouse are the only team to do the double in one season in the past five seasons. They were the first club to win the double and their three double title wins in a season is the most among all European clubs.

Champions Cup + Domestic League Double Winners