Leinster need to find Champions Cup performance for the ages to dethrone Bordeaux Bègles

Champions Cup final: Leinster v Bordeaux Bègles, Saturday, San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao, 2.45pm (Live on Premier Sports 1 and ITV4)

Forget any pining for an all-French affair. The Champions Cup has the final it deserves and, of course, the one it should have had last year. Leinster are back in a ninth final and seeking a fifth title by dethroning the holders. Whoever lifts the trophy will have earned it.

Leinster are also back where they won their fourth Champions Cup in 2018. The shimmering, oval-shaped San Mamés Stadium really does look a picture in the sun, the matching white panels glittering by day and lit up at night. It’s a cool stadium – the biggest in the Basque Country – in the heart of a cool city and for a variety of reasons, it perhaps favours the team from less than four hours up the road.

Eight years ago, Leinster’s win over Racing 92 was played out under torrential rain clouds at Athletic Bilbao’s stadium.

This time, ironically, Bilbao has been hit with a heatwave and temperatures of 27 degrees are forecast at kick-off. But Caelan Doris, in his own inimitable way, seemed unperturbed about the prospect of playing in the most stifling conditions he and his teammates will have experienced in some while.

“It’s obviously very different to back home, but we have all played in conditions like this with humidity and temperatures right up there,” he said. “A few of us were talking about how the Romania game in the World Cup was something similar and maybe a bit higher. You just get on with it.

“Obviously we’ve got some challenges, which the medical and nutrition team have mapped out for us. Just break it (the game) down to smaller pieces in your mind instead of one big thing you’re tackling. Yeah, moment by moment.”

The Union Bordeaux Bègles (UBB) players ought to be more au fait with playing in such heat, although not of late, as their captain Maxime Lucu admitted.

“When it’s hot, especially when it’s one of the first times in a while, we absolutely have to consider it,” he said, before echoing Doris in highlighting their nutritional staff.

“With the heat, there will inevitably be periods of weakness and we’ll have to dig deep to find the energy we need,” he said, while also pointing out that the increased perspiration could make the ball tricky. “But I’d rather play in weather like this, a final at 3:45pm (2.45pm Irish time), than in wind and rain. We like to play under the sun, of course.”

The final is, of course, taking place in a football stadium, which Leo Cullen said is 60 metres wide compared to 70 at the Aviva. To further illustrate how this is more of a home match for UBB, Lucu himself was born in the gorgeous coastal town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the southwest corner of France between Biarritz and San Sebastian. He is one of five Basque players in their squad who received replica jerseys from Athletic Bilbao.

Even so, with the finalists only receiving 2,000 tickets each, and all 53,331 tickets sold, it will also be intriguing to see how the support matches up. Much like the match itself.

France have held a five-year grip on this trophy. Much like Toulon’s three-in-a-row team from 2013-15 on and, more recently, La Rochelle, UBB are the Top 14’s latest nouveau Euro kingpins. They have beaten the French champions and the Premiership champions and are now looking to complete the treble by overcoming the URC champions.

They probably have the most potent outhalf/winger attacking combination in world rugby. It could mean this is the ultimate 80-minute test for a high-risk, high-reward, outside-in, blitz defence. It is a blueprint with Jacques Nienaber written all over it.

Matthieu Jalibert’s vision, footwork, acceleration, passing range and kicking were almost uncontainable in last season’s final against Northampton. He has a particular fiendish chip which Jamison Gibson-Park will surely be entrusted to cover whenever possible.

Just three minutes into their quarter-final against Toulouse, Lucu immediately kicked turnover ball from inside his own 22 downfield for Louis Bielle-Biarrey to make Romain Ntamack look like he was jogging on the spot.

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Although the bounce of the ball defied him, the UBB winger is a searingly dangerous threat with or without the ball, and Tommy O’Brien wasn’t the first or last opposing winger to struggle against Bielle-Biarrey on Six Nations opening night in Paris.

Yet he was a little unlucky that night and while Nienaber’s system could leave him exposed to Jalibert finding grass in behind him, O’Brien’s fitness is a boost, given he looks the best equipped to cope with the 22-year-old flyer.

What that night also underlined is the importance of the aerial duel, all the more so given the French threat off broken ball or in transition. Yet, of late, UBB’s form may have tapered off a tad, whereas Leinster’s attack has really found a groove – and their Lions-infused pack has some world-class players in form.

This is the starting XV which dominated Toulon for more than an hour in the final quarter and a bench bolstered by Paddy McCarthy, Diarmuid Mangan, Max Deegan and Ciarán Frawley – and yet a host of good players have missed out.

The feeling, even from before the pairing came to pass, that UBB might skin Leinster out wide has not gone away. But it has ebbed. It is very possible that this will be the day Nienaber’s defensive system is vindicated.

Either way, it will likely be a very intense, fluctuating and close encounter.

Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Rieko Ioane; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tom Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan, Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt). Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Paddy McCarthy, Tadhg Furlong, Diarmuid Mangan, Max Deegan, Luke McGrath, Ciaran Frawley, Jamie Osborne.

Union Bordeaux Bègles: Salesi Rayasi; Pablo Uberti, Damian Penaud, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt); Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Carlü Sadie, Boris Palu, Adam Coleman, Pierre Bochaton, Cameron Woki, Marko Gazzotti. Replacements: Gaetan Barlot, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Lachie Swinton, Temo Matiu, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Arthur Retiere, Hugo Reus.

Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)

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