LONG READ Johnnie Beattie: 'With smart recruitment, Bordeaux-Begles could dominate Europe for 10 years'

I’d been playing professional rugby for eight years before I was properly taught how to communicate with the ball. Joining Fabien Galthie’s Montpellier in 2012 opened my eyes to a whole new layer of rugby I simply hadn’t experienced – ‘this is how we identify space, this is how we use the ball’.

In Scotland, we’d just shout ‘hands’ when we had an overlap. But ‘hands’ didn’t really mean anything. Fabien had three calls for the same thing, each with a different slant on how we moved the ball wide. Where back home, we never had a call to say nobody was covering the backfield and a chip was on, Fabien had that in his playbook too.

This is pretty elementary stuff now, and quite embarrassing that we were so behind the times. Today, nearly 15 years on, there is such emphasis in France on the quality of decision-making and skill execution under pressure.

Rugby became a bit dull for a while – everyone guzzled protein shakes and crunched weights while defence, kicking and jackaling reigned. As the game evolves to favour the best attacking teams and coaches devise new methods of scoring tries, the European champions of Union Bordeaux-Begles are at the very frontier. On Saturday in Bilbao, UBB defend their crown against Leinster. Like most, I make them hot favourites.

There are key pillars a side needs on its journey to success and UBB have built every one of them. Firstly, more so than anywhere else, sustained investment is required to prosper in France. Club president Laurent Marti has been pumping money in for two decades. Marti took over when UBB were still in their infancy following the 2006 merger of Stade Bordelais and CA Bordeaux-Begles Gironde, and playing in the ProD2. He’s amassed a serious group of sponsors and brought huge investment into the club from the wider community. During my career in the Top 14, they generally finished in the Champions Cup slots, always had a massive support and played a vibrant brand of rugby – they just couldn’t bridge that gap from nearly men to winners.

So what’s changed? On the field, the players have had three seasons with Yannick Bru and his coaching staff; a powerful culture and a clear playing identity. Their backline is the best in club rugby and the Toulousain grip on French jerseys 9-15 now flipped in favour of the European champions. Maxime Lucu has performed more consistently than Antoine Dupont this season and is a better partner for Matthieu Jalibert, who is the form 10 in Europe if not the world. I’m not sure there is a 10 quicker across the ground, quicker at identifying space and creating time on the ball for those outside him. He is the leading line-breaker in the Top 14 and Champions Cup. He has agility, sharpness and balance to match his pace. Nobody is at his level. French newspaper Midi Olympique have described his growth as “the soloist who became conductor of the orchestra”.

Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortere are France’s best centres when fit. They’re immensely powerful at the gainline too. Madcap Damian Penaud has been moonlighting at 13 with Deporteere out and still causing mayhem. Salesi Rayasi has made the step up from Vannes with aplomb. Louis Bielle-Biarey is the hottest property on planet rugby; potentially a generational talent like Serge Blanco 40 years before him. He’s referred to as a ‘chou chou’ in France – roughly translated, the ‘darling’ of the French rugby public. Polite, smiling, a sensational try-scorer but also a player with the brilliant vision and nous to seize his opportunities.

This backline casts a long shadow, and sometimes UBB’s juggernaut pack operates in the gloom. They can do the blunt instrument stuff better than just about anyone. Up against a URC or Prem side in an arm wrestle, there’s no contest.

Tameifuna was arguably the best player on the field when Tonga took on South Africa which gives you an idea of the sheer physical presence he brings every single week. He dished out Springboks like they were kids.

Burgeoning Frenchmen in the back-row are coming to the fore. Gaetan Barlot, who was already a France international, gave up a starting spot at Castres to back up local boy Maxime Lamothe at hooker. Carlu Sadie, the tighthead prop, is a total freak. Not many people in the world have his morphology. Even fewer are built like Ben Tameifuna, who walks the Bordeaux cobbles like a god. At the 2023 World Cup, Tameifuna was arguably the best player on the field when Tonga took on South Africa which gives you an idea of the sheer physical presence he brings every single week. He dished out Springboks like they were kids. His work rate is ferocious, and his skillset incredible. He’s supple enough to win jackals and slots touchline goals in training. Bring Big Ben off the bench, and you can change the momentum of a match.

Noel McNamara is the tactical brain behind the fireworks. McNamara’s story is well documented. The Irishman never played rugby and has made himself one of the sharpest thinkers and sought-after attack coaches in the game. I spoke to my former teammate Jonny Gray, who recently left UBB for Perpignan, about McNamara and the verdict was glowing. Jonny said this guy could be a director of rugby for any side in Europe. He’s the one who sets up their structures, game plan, launches from set-plays, gets them on the front foot and designs the whole thing. McNamara’s attack against Jacques Nienaber’s defence will be a pivotal battle in the Basque Country.

What UBB have also developed is less tangible. Take Jefferson Poirot, the veteran prop and former France captain. Poirot was disillusioned with rugby in 2020 and announced his retirement from the international game aged just 27. Six years on, he runs multiple businesses in the city yet remains an integral part of the UBB system, reenergised and reinvigorated.

It’s a similar story with Cameron Woki. The giant second-row was a rockstar in Bordeaux, but left after an unseemly fall-out with former coach Christophe Urios in 2022. Urios was an old-school figure and Woki part of the new, stylish breed of athlete who want to be more than a sportsperson. A clash seemed inevitable. Woki went to Racing 92, never played his best rugby and never got near a trophy. Bru signed Woki last summer and reunited him with his longtime friend Jalibert. The pair have played together since their mid-teens. Jalibert has likened his mate’s return to a revenge mission, and has not been surprised by the level of Woki’s performance. It’s been a homecoming of sorts, Bru empowering Woki to run the lineout and playing an open style that suits him.

There is humiliation behind the harmony too, and that’s a powerful driver. Two years ago, in their first final under Bru, UBB were humiliated 59-3 by Toulouse. That match lit a flame under a group of players who were incredibly talented but new together. Lucu, Jalibert and their counterparts had reached the top table for the first time and didn’t really know how to dine there. They seemed overawed by their Toulouse rivals who were Galthie’s first-choice picks and had all the medals to back it up. Mentally, they fell apart.

That psychological frailty has gone now. UBB are battle-hardened and expectant. Captain Lucu wants to make that Test jersey his own and each French player on his side feels the same. They’ve closed the gap on Toulouse. They dumped them out of the Champions Cup last year, put a star on the jersey, bashed them up in this year’s semi-finals and are gunning for back-to-back titles.

In my time, we wouldn’t have seen a team evolve as UBB have. The Toulon side which won three Champions Cups had an average of three Frenchmen in their starting XVs.

In my time, we wouldn’t have seen a team evolve as UBB have. The JIFF rules governing home-grown players were less strict and the likes of Marko Gazzotti, Temo Matiu and perhaps even Bielle-Biarrey would have found it much harder to break into the first team, with well-paid overseas internationals standing in their path and wheeled out as often as possible to justify the outlay on their wages. The Toulon side which won the Champions Cup three years in a row between 2013 and 2015 was made up mostly of foreign Galacticos. An average of three Frenchmen started the respective finals.

UBB have been forged in a different way, harnessing French talent and sprinkling on the international class of Tameifuna, Sadie, Rayasi, Adam Coleman and previously, Pete Samu. French rugby is riding the crest of its biggest ever wave – the enormous TV rights deal, the growing popularity, the viewing figures online – and UBB are leading the way with this crop of players who have been given their chance.

With this changing of the guard, players have become stars in general pop culture. In the UK, players are generally expected to be studious, serious and hard-working. In France, there is still space for that colourful personality without judgement.

How do Leinster stop this multi-faceted machine? It’s not going to be through power. It won’t be through collision dominance. If the game gets tight with one-out runners and heavy hits, Leinster are cooked because they don’t have the specimens to deal with UBB at the gainline. So it becomes about speed. How can Leinster outstrip them, outpace them, outkick them and turn them? They will have to hold onto the ball in the middle of the field, and really shift the point of contact to stretch UBB and avoid being drawn into the really confrontational stuff up front. On the flip side, if you keep the ball too long and get turned over, there’s a very good chance UBB will score.

Leinster’s ace may be Nienaber’s defensive style. Nobody in the Top 14 really embraces the hard, out-to-in blitz anymore. You leave too much space in the backfield and for kick-pass options – which is especially dangerous with Jalibert’s antennae twitching. Leinster will have to show UBB something different to what they’re used to and that aggressive ‘D’ could be it. Catch them behind the gainline, and they’re on the back foot, with Jalibert reloading while going towards his own line. The whole game is about momentum. Can Leinster get one big defensive moment, one game-changing hit, one interception? Can they maintain that intensity for 80 minutes against one of the best attacking sides the game has seen? It’s a huge ask, but Bordeaux have not faced a defensive structure like that this year.

Leinster know what it is to chase those precious Champions Cup stars and feel the agony of near misses. Only a few French clubs have really gone after European honours and UBB are the latest. Ronan O’Gara drove La Rochelle to glory because, as a Munsterman, he was steeped in the Champions Cup. Bru is cut from a similar cloth; his education coming through a golden era at Toulouse. He’s all-in. With the crop UBB have, and continued smart recruitment, they should be challenging at Europe’s summit for the next 10 years.

The holy grail of French rugby remains the Bouclier de Brennus, the Top 14 title. UBB have yet to win one, but the best supported club in the world believe it’s coming, now the silverware monkey has been shaken from their back. Just as they believe a second star, and more besides, will soon adorn their jersey.