Leinster must be applauded for making it to two finals in one season

Investec Champions Cup winners Bordeaux have failed to qualify for the Top 14 play-offs, which reinforces the enormity of doing a European and Domestic Double and emphasises what a quality effort it is for Leinster to make it to two finals in one season.

Friday Night Lights – URC Grand Final

Leinster fell to Bordeaux in the Investec Champions Cup final and will host the Bulls in the United Rugby Championship final on Friday night, 19th June at Croke Park in Dublin.

Leinster

Leinster finished the URC league season in second place and beat the Lions and Stormers in the quarter-final and semi-final.

They are the defending champions, having beaten the Bulls 32-7 in the 2024/25 final, played at Croke Park in Dublin.

Leinster coaches Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber have done remarkably well to get to three out of a possible four finals in the last two seasons.

Bordeaux were brilliant in the Investec Champions Cup, winning all their eight matches, but their European focus came at a cost when they dropped seven Top 14 matches in 14 while balancing the demands of the Investec Champions Cup.

They finished the Top 14 in eighth place with 12 defeats in 26 matches, for 70 league points.

Bordeaux-Bègles 2025/26 Top 14 regular season record

Season summary

• Played: 26
• Won: 14
• Lost: 12
• Points For: 822
• Points Against: 719
• Points Difference: +103
• Competition Points: 70
• Final Position: 8th

The 12 defeats

Away defeats (8)

• Racing 92 44-32
• Stade Français 28-7
• Toulouse 56-13
• Montpellier 28-24
• Clermont 34-19
• Pau 39-17
• La Rochelle 45-15
• Toulon 27-22

Home defeats (4)

• Pau 34-33
• Stade Français 33-28
• Montpellier 23-21
• Clermont 34-31

All four home defeats were by six points or fewer, and three were by three points or fewer:

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