Caelan Doris rues what 'went their way' a lot in Champions Cup final loss

Caelan Doris admitted Leinster were punished for their poor first half as Bordeaux retained their Investec Champions Cup crown with a 41-19 victory in the final at Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.

A 35-7 interval deficit that saw Leinster’s line breached five times, including twice by wing magician Louis Bielle-Biarrey, left them with an impossible task in their pursuit of a fifth European title.

They have now fallen in the final five times since their most recent triumph in 2018, with the last four of those losses coming against French opposition.

“You have to credit Bordeaux,” captain Doris told Premier Sports. “Some of their attack in that first half was incredibly hard to deal with.

“We’ve obviously scouted them thoroughly and a lot of it starts with the contact area. If you’re not winning that, you can see what they can do.

“They’re capable of big moments out of nothing. A lot of the scraps and stuff went their way earlier on, but it comes from the contact area, which we didn’t deal with well enough.

“We left ourselves too tall a mountain to climb. Proud of the effort of our boys in the second half, trying to climb back.

“Felt there were quite a few opportunities that we didn’t take out there, which is obviously incredibly disappointing.”

Leinster will turn their attention to defending their United Rugby Championship title once they have recovered from another European disappointment.

“It’s an incredibly tough competition to win,” Doris said. “We’ve been in the latter stages quite a few times.

“I’m proud of the boys for the resilience we’ve shown to keep coming back and no doubt we’ll be back better again next year. We’ve got to stay together.”

Bordeaux prop Ben Tameifuna won two turnovers to make a big impact off the bench and he described the champions’ performance as “the perfect match”.

Tameifuna said: “It’s just a huge relief. It’s probably one of the few times I’ve been nervous in my career because going back-to-back is huge.

“We just had to stick together because Leinster are a top team. We know they have internationals right through the squad, from one to 23.

“We had a huge role on the bench to come on and bring a bit of energy and try and match physicality. I feel we did that and we played a perfect match.”