This Sunday evening, UBB achieved the enormous performance of winning on the pitch at Stade Toulouse (16-12). A victory acquired thanks to two brilliant shots from Louis Bielle-Biarrey and constant defense. The statistics speak for themselves…
Until the last second, the Bordelo-Béglais did not give up. Until the last ruck, they fought to force the Toulouse team to make a mistake. This Sunday, UBB slammed its fist on the table with a victory at Ernest-Wallon as beautiful as it is unexpected.
The men of Yannick Bru played the perfect match away. Efficiency in the first act to take the advantage, and a defense which annihilated a good number of Haut-Garonne offensives during the second. Even though they thought they would win at the very last second, the reigning French champions never managed to break the Girondin barrier. The fault of tireless unionist defenders.
Looking at the statistics line, we see that Union Bordeaux-Bègles made 145 tackles this Sunday evening, for 28 misses. More than adequate figures when you know the quality of the red and black attackers. A success rate of 83.8% which is one of the reasons for this founding success.
On the Toulouse side, the defensive sector was not really celebrating with a 69 out of 99, or 69.6% of successful interventions. In other words, no more missed defensive interventions on the Stadistes side (30 against 28). One of the reasons for their defeat in front of their supporters.
Bochaton, Grey, Cute…
Obviously, some players panicked the counters in the Bordeaux-Béglais ranks. Despite possession largely in its favor (64%), Stade Toulouse hit a wall. The strongest bricks of the latter were called Pierre Bochaton, Maxime Lucu, Jonny Gray and Maxime Lamothe.
The first city finished the game with a 15 out of 15 in the tackle. Rather clean. The other three all exceeded the ten-intervention mark. 12 for Lucu and Gray as well as 13 for Lamothe. Special mention for the hooker, replacing at kick-off and who only played a little over half an hour.
All these men are not innocent either on the balls recovered from the ground by the Union Bordeaux-Bègles. There are six of them. The Girondins’ second try, signed Lucu, comes from a successful counter-ruck by the last finalists of the Top 14 in the Toulouse camp.
UBB has achieved more than Toulouse
Old-timers will never repeat it enough: defense wins games. UBB proved it once again during this fourth day of the championship. However, it would be regrettable to sum up the unionist exploit to fifteen men ready to throw themselves into anyone they encountered on the side of Ernest-Wallon.
Matthieu Jalibert and his team defended, yes, but they also knew how to crack the Toulouse defense with the ball in hand. This combination still comes to mind, played to perfection for Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s test…
The Bordelo-Béglais made half as many races with ball in hand as their opponents: 82 compared to 166. However, they crossed twice as many. Yes, you read that correctly. 7 crossings for UBB – including 3 for “LBB” – and only 3 for Toulouse. When we tell you that the defensive curtain of the Girondins was almost impassable. The latter played the match needed to put an end to more than two and a half years of invincibility for the reigning European and French champions. Nothing else to do except congratulate them.
