French dominance in Europe! Bordeaux hammer Leinster
The Ruck
Reynolds Alfie
3.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alex and Will are in Bilbao to reflect on the Champions Cup final!
Bordeaux have won back-to-back titles to join the elite sides in European Club rugby. What makes them so special? It is now 6 years in a row that a French club have been crowned Champions of Europe, how can anyone catch them?
What does this defeat mean for Leinster? Their 5th Champions Cup final defeat in a row and is this one the most damaging of the lot?
Plus, do EPCR need to do more 'destination' cities for their finals? And will we see a World Cup in Spain!?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone. Welcome back to The Ruck, the journalist rugby podcast from The Times and the Sunday Times. I'm here with Alex Lowe. |
| 0:22.1 | We're standing outside the San Mameer Stadium in Bilbao next to the river in the dappled sunshine, |
| 0:27.6 | basking in Bordeaux's glory as they go back to back in Europe. |
| 0:31.6 | The Burgundy Berets are out. |
| 0:34.1 | They smashed Lentster in the Champions Cup final. |
| 0:36.6 | They've backed up the win from last season. |
| 0:39.4 | They're European champions again, Alex Lowe. What did you make of Bordeaux? |
| 0:44.6 | Well, Bordeaux Begle have been, like I've watched them quite a lot this season, I've written a lot about |
| 0:48.3 | them and it's kind of hard not to fall in love with that club at the moment. The way they play, what they |
| 0:54.0 | stand for, |
| 0:54.8 | the positive outlook they have on the game is so different to, well, a lot of other Anglo-Saxon |
| 1:01.6 | teams, shall we say, that their desire to take risks, to be bold, to go forward, to look for |
| 1:08.5 | space. They've just got some magical touches. |
| 1:12.2 | They've got some ferociously physical players as well. |
| 1:14.9 | And there was so much to love about the club, I think, at the moment. |
| 1:19.4 | Maxime Lucu was in the match today. |
| 1:21.6 | My big preview for the game in Saturday's paper was all centered around him. |
| 1:26.0 | The boy from the French Basque village and nestled |
| 1:30.1 | in the foothills of the Pyrenees, be able to win the Champions Cup in the biggest Basque city |
| 1:36.5 | there is. It's just, there's a lot special about it, a lot special about Bilbao, which I think |
| 1:41.5 | has been a sensational host of the finals weekend. |
| 1:46.1 | And on the flip side of everything to love about Bordeaux, there's a lot to pick through about Lentster. |
... |
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