Leinster suffer Champions Cup humbling at the hands of Bordeaux
5/23/202628 min
Both Leinster and Ulster struck early in their respective finals, only to be pegged back soon after as both sides suffered chastening defeats.
Is this Leinster's most damaging final defeat since they last won the Champions Cup in 2018?
Did the heat and conditions suit the French sides? And how do the provinces close the gap on Bordeaux, Montpellier and others from the Top 14?
Nathan Johns and Gerry Thornley are in Bilbao as they dissect defeats for Leinster and Ulster on a damaging European weekend for Irish rugby.
Produced by John Casey.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsNathan Johns· Host0:01
[upbeat music] Hello and welcome from the bowels of the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao. Leinster have been beaten 41-19 in what is now a fifth consecutive Champions Cup final defeat when they've reached this stage. A reminder, this is the CounterRock rugby podcast, is brought to you by The Irish Times in partnership with Oak Energy. Gerry Thornley, hello. It's been a couple of hours now.
Gerry Thornley· Panelist0:24
Mm-hmm.
Nathan Johns· Host0:24
We've been working away [laughs] since- Mm-hmm ... full time. Um, now that thoughts have digested ever so slightly, what do you make of that?
Gerry Thornley· Panelist0:32
It completes yet another very sobering, solitary reality check for Irish rugby on top of what happened in Paris in the Six Nations and what happened last night here between Montpellier and Ulster, and, uh, particularly today. Um, Leinster have lost five finals since they won here eight years ago. I've been at all of them. The last four have been against French sides, and never has the gulf seemed so big, and never has that fifth star seemed so more difficult to win.
Nathan Johns· Host0:58
Is this the worst of those final defeats?
Gerry Thornley· Panelist1:00
Definitely.
Nathan Johns· Host1:00
So if we ranked them, so 2019, Sarries up in, up in Newcastle. '22 in Marseille- Mm-hmm ... against La Rochelle. '23 in Dublin against La Rochelle. [laughs] '24 in London- Against Tottenham ... in Tottenham against Toulouse, and now '26 in Bilbao.
Gerry Thornley· Panelist1:15
Yeah.
Nathan Johns· Host1:16
Is this the worst because the gulf was so big?
Gerry Thornley· Panelist1:19
Yeah, I think so. I really do. And there- therefore, that could be, could be the most damaging. Others would've been more heartbreaking, but this would leave more scars 'cause of the scale of the defeat. The bizarre thing