Leinster's Champions Cup final opponents Bordeaux Bègles earn narrow Top 14 win
by AFP · The42Top 14 Results:
- Bayonne 38-40 Bordeaux Bègles
- Montpellier 59-7 Montauban
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CHAMPIONS CUP HOLDERS Bordeaux Bègles earned a narrow win in the Top 14 this weekend, while Montpellier continue their preparation for the Challenge Cup final with a convincing victory.
Bordeaux Bègles will put their Champions Cup title on the line against Leinster at the San Mames Stadium, Bilbao on Saturday, 23 May. Ulster will take on Montpellier at the same venue in the Challenge Cup final on Friday, 22 May.
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Scrum-half Maxime Lucu slotted a 76th minute conversion as Bordeaux-Bègles edged Bayonne 40-38 a week on from reaching the Champions Cup final.
Lucu’s side are in the sixth and final play-off spot, four points below Stade Francais in fourth after the Parisians thumped Lyon 59-17.
Montauban were relegated from the French Top 14 on Saturday after Montpellier’s Argentina centre Justo Piccardo scored four tries in a 59-7 hammering.
Piccardo’s contributions sent Montauban and their meagre financial budget down to ProD2 after just one season, when they managed just one win and a draw by conceding a record number of a tries and points in one Top 14 campaign.
Montpellier crossed for nine touchdowns in total as they moved to second place, seven points off leaders Toulouse, who head to Toulon later in the day.
They leapfrogged Pau, who had beaten Castres 27-15 earlier in the day thanks to 11 points from English fly-half Joe Simmonds.
Tillous-Borde’s side had to beat Montpellier to keep any hope of overlapping Perpignan in 13rd place, the relegation play-off berth.
That aspiration was all but over by half-time on the Mediterranean coast as Montpellier led 26-0, thanks to Piccardo crossing three times in 33 minutes.
The only consolation for 1967 French champions Montauban was a try for 19-year-old Fijian winger Asaeli Gade as Montpellier added five efforts after the break, including 24-year-old Piccardo’s fourth.
On Sunday, Racing 92 host Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle with both sides still holding a mathematical chance of reaching the top six.