Bordeaux’s magician is the STECO Hybrid Power Tool Hero

There were some great candidates for the STECO Hybrid Power Tool Hero, but the winner had to come from Bordeaux’s 30-15 win against Toulouse in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final.

Every week, on the Keo & Zels Show a winner is picked from the most hybrid performance of the weekend’s action.

Here is the transcript of the conversation between Keo & Zels.

Keo: As always, master, it is over to you.

Zels: I just loved the Jalibert try. Great flying sequence by Bordeaux, then he grubbers through, chases his own kick, even though he won’t be the first man there, and then the ball comes back to him on the edge. He picks it up and dives over for a famous try. I thought that was a great moment.

Keo: It was a great moment and Jalibert grew into that game. There were a few cool moments from him. One was when (Toulouse No 10) Ntamack picked him up and dumped him in the tackle, sort of waking him up mid-offload, and the smile he gave Ntamack afterwards it was like a training run between national team rivals.

Keo: Toulouse against Bordeaux is something we’re not always fully versed in this country. I am talking about the depth of that provincial rivalry in France. We think of France as France, like the All Blacks are the same, where the players have a national identity of being teammates to us, but when they play club v club, it is intense and full-on.

Keo: It’s like when Fourie du Preez got taken out by Schalk Burger in the Bulls v Stormers Super Rugby match at Newlands and Schalk gave him that wink that said, I’ll see you next week in national colours and then I’ll do it to the opposition.

Zels: So where is your thinking?

Keo: My initial moment in this weekend of Investec Champions Cup rugby was going to come from Northampton-Bath. Then I thought about the winning try for Toulon against Glasgow, and a few moments from Leinster’s win against Sale Sharks. Then I wanted Bordeaux’s Big Ben Big Ben into it again my favourite prop outside of Ox Nche and Wilco Louw. He came on, got a turnover, scored a try. But in the end, no it has to be your man Jalibert.

Zels: And we’re not discounting what Bordeaux captain, scrumhalf and Player of the Match Maxime Lucu did. But Jalibert made 17 carries, he made tackles, and it’s been his tournament so far, in the Pool Stages and now the quarter-final. He’s had a hell of a season and I think he put it all together in that game. We’ve been saying for some time that that Bordeaux halfback combination probably serves France better as a pair than Ntamack and Dupont, even if individually the latter two may be better players. And I think that showed. That Bordeaux halfback combination is superb.

Zels: The Bordeaux pack helped. The pack gave them dominance, but those two guys used the ball to maximum effect in every way kicking for space, kicking for line, releasing the outside backs, bringing the forwards into the game. And then Jalibert just found some magic with that grubber and the way he dived over at the end was like something from a Hollywood script.

Andre Esterhuizen and STECO

 

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