LONG READ Why UBB are edging the battle of dynasties in European rugby

Ten minutes before the end of a coruscating European Champions Cup quarter-final on the Atlantic coast, Romain Ntamack saw his chance. His opposite number Matthieu Jalibert had exposed his ribs as he stretched out for the miracle catch and offload on the run, the décharge sensationnelle. The former French number 10 picked up the hometown hero, ramming him unceremoniously into the billiard-table surface of the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

It was a copybook tackle and it must have hurt, but Jalibert looked up at the man who had done the damage and grinned through the pain. Somehow, that moment epitomized the new ‘greatest rivalry’ in French and European club rugby. There is friction, even enmity, between two clubs contesting the highest honours in the game, and individuals vying for the same spot in the national side. It is a family feud of Shakespearian stature. But there is also mutual respect, and a wider sense that both are playing their parts in an unfolding storyline with many scenes to come.

Even as they were both living in the eye of the storm back in the 1980s, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson formed a lasting friendship with his arch rival Larry Bird, in the tiny private spaces between their very public clashes in the NBA. But as a lifelong Laker he still hates the Celtics with a passion. When Boston won an 18^th NBA championship in 2024, one more than LA, the 66-year-old posted on ‘X’: ‘I hate that the Celtics officially have more championships than us now’.

That was the predominant feeling of the NBA in the eighties. One of either the Lakers or the Celtics reached the finals in every season, and the Lakers won two of the three series where the two clubs played one another. The marketing men found themselves in seventh heaven with the dynastic contrasts.

The Celtics were blue-collar, with a structured half-court attacking game and a tough, aggressive style that mirrored their support at the Boston Garden. Detroit Piston John Salley viewed them as ‘the [first] real bad boys. The real bad boys were the thugs. The Celtics had guys that would hit you, didn’t even know if they were on the team or not.’

The Lakers were pure Hollywood with their all-court fast-break style on the counter. When the machine purred, it was ‘showtime’ with dunks, jams and three-pointers galore. Dancing Barry and the Laker girls, actors Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas cheering from the bleachers and the A-listers in the Forum club looking down from on high.

The differences between Bordeaux and Toulouse may not be so unashamedly American in scale but all the stats point towards a classic contrast in styles.

Now the Girondins and the Toulousains are dancing their very own rugby version of the paso doble. There will be beauty and balance in the sequences along the way, but the dance always has to finish with a kill. The spirit of the rivalry was distilled by comments on either side of a 39-33 victory by the rouge-et-noirs in the 2025 Top 14 final, which was only decided in extra time.

From the red-and-black side, full-back Thomas Ramos: “The match was quite incredible, against a confident team. Perhaps, being champions today is more significant than being champions on other occasions. We’re proud to have beaten this team because it’s a title that, for us, comes from a very, very long way back.”

In the claret-and-white corner, scrum-half Maxime Lucu: “A match against Toulouse is never over. Playing matches like that is a treat, it’s a pleasure. The frustration is enormous. They had the frustration of the European Cup. We felt that, and they came to get the French championship title. We tried. We gave it our all. Today, we fell with weapons in hand.”

There is nothing to rival the sensation of the bitter-sweet; the knowledge that, win or lose, you are participating in a game of rugby for the ages, and a battle of dynasties rather than clubs. In some small way, you are fleshing out the shape of history. Maybe that is the feeling Ugo Mola’s charges will have now, after a 30-15 loss in Bordeaux put paid to their European ambitions for the 2025-26 season.

The differences between Bordeaux and Toulouse may not be so unashamedly American in scale but all the stats point towards a classic contrast in styles.  Take a look at the following quick comparison table from the performance of the two clubs in the current Top 14:

Both teams are able to manage higher ball-in-play times, as you would expect of two such high-quality outfits – only Lyon rank higher in the Top 14 at 36.6’ per game. But Toulouse are much happier to grind away with ball-in-hand and all-world scrum-half Antoine Dupont steering the ship; making fewer tackles per game than any other club bar Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle and in the bottom three for kicks launched.

The reverse is true for Yannick Bru’s men. The Bordelais play primarily off their No.10 Matthieu Jalibert and are conditioned to manage long kicking duels and far more protracted periods on defence, with the grand strategic aim of creating as many transitions from defence to attack as possible on their own terms. That sets the basic scene for battle.

Now let’s look at the quarter-final through the lens of the same stats:

Ball-in-play time was a lot higher than the Top 14 norm, partly due to the presence of a referee from the English Prem, Matt Carley. The tactical envelope was stretched to the limit with the addition of those three extra minutes. Bordeaux launched five more kicks than their normal Top 14 average, and Toulouse set an extra 18 rucks.

It lent the game at the Stade Chaban-Delmas a definitive character, and ultimately it favoured the home side more than it did the visitors. Toulouse kept the ball for long periods, probing patiently for weaknesses. They carried the ball into contact on 34 more occasions than the current champions and forced them to make 39 extra tackles, while making fewer breaks [four to UBB’s 10] and accruing less post-contact metres, averaging 1.01 metre-per-carry compared to UBB’s 1.63m.

The biggest problem of all for the men from the Haute-Garonne was escaping the stranglehold of UBB pressure at the defensive breakdown. By the end of the game, UBB had won 11 turnovers in and around the tackle area, shared among seven different players in the team. A ruck retention rate of 90%, losing one breakdown battle in every 10, will not win you any prizes at this level of the game. There are no medals for trying.

Two long attacking sequences in the first 10 minutes set the pattern for what followed:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

Over the one minute and 23 seconds, and 12 rucks, that these two sequences last in total, there is a serious competition at nine of them. As soon as Toulouse are forced to over-resource the ruck, committing big second-row Manny Meafou as either the third or fourth man at 3:14 in the first clip and at 11:58 in the second, the UBB defence knows it will be short of support on the following couple of phases. That is the trigger for turnover action – a jackal by prop Jefferson Poirot in the first sequence [one of three on the day by the loose-head], and a strip by Jalibert in the second. As soon as they gain precious transition ball, the Bordelais instinct is the same:  to shift the ball towards the extreme speed and skill of Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the left edge.

The second major problem for Toulouse was the variety of the Bordeaux competition at the breakdown. UBB won seven turnovers by jackaling on the deck, but they also weaponized the counter-ruck on two other occasions:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

As soon as the Girondins sense weakness – an inside back, Ntmack, against forward Maxime Lamothe in the first instance, and one back [Teddy Thomas] against two or three in the second, the men from Bordeaux do not hesitate to commit to the contest, and it was their fine instinct and situational awareness on breakdown D which won them the game as much as anything.

The third big problem for Toulouse was that the pressure did not slacken in the final quarter, it ramped up further with the arrival of big 150-kilo Ben Tameifuna from the pine. The proud son of Tonga won three more turnovers all by himself:

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 14, 2026

The stopping technique linked to successful jackaling makes for compelling viewing in the first clip. The tackle is a low knockdown which allows the ball-carrier to pass over the top of the tackler and temporarily separates him from his support, leaving him exposed to the attentions of Big Ben. As soon as the counter is on, Matthieu Jalibert appears as if from nowhere, and the rabbit is out of the hat.

Stade Toulousain may possess the best single jackaler in the Top 14 – probably in the whole of European competition – in the shape of Jack Willis, but the ex-Wasps and England man was overwhelmed in the aggregate, by the efforts of the UBB defence en masse at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

The Girondins won turnovers from eight different positions on the field, from forwards and backs, from their starting line-up and the bench alike. It was all too much for the Toulouse possession game by the finish. The war of the two dynasties will surely continue in the future, but as the page turns on the current chapter, Jalibert is still smiling.