First Toulouse and now Bordeaux have travelled to Exeter this season and been so markedly superior that a boxing referee would have stopped the fight long before the end. The Chiefs, who missed 47 tackles, were good enough to see off Gloucester in their most recent home outing but these opponents were several cuts above. It does not necessarily follow that France will be similarly dominant in the Six Nations but there can be no disputing the pedigree of players such as Damian Penaud β who helped himself to a hat-trick of tries β Matthieu Jalibert and Louis Bielle-Biarrey when they have plentiful turnover ball to feast on.
They were scoring without having to go through a phase at times. We have to do better than that. It was a momentary flicker of Chiefs quality with slack tackling giving Bordeaux the chance to display their own finishing ability. Lucu scored the first and was heavily involved in the second, looping around Jalibert and feeding Romain Buros who put a strolling Penaud over with 14 minutes gone.
Despite the premature loss of the dangerous Buros with an ankle strain there was plenty more casual backline brilliance to come. On the half hour they swept right again with the elusive Penaud this time turning provider to give the supporting Lucu a straightforward jog to the line.
With the brilliant young Bielle-Biarrey appearing off the bench to inflict further languid damage, Bordeaux can be every bit as dangerous as Toulouse with ball in hand and the ease with which the visitors added a fifth try seconds before half-time did not bode at all well. Josh Bassett scored a hat-trick as Leicester fought back to earn a Pool 1 victory over Ulster at Welford Road and secure their place in the last Nick Timoney got the visitors off to a flying start with an early try, but Bassett crossed after 17, 41 and 60 minutes at Welford Road.
Ollie Hassell-Collins also helped himself to a double and Izaia Perese added a sixth try as the home side hit back in devastating fashion. Sale 's hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions Cup suffered a major blow after they were thrashed by Stormers in Cape Town.
