In Sunday’s late game, eight-time finalists Leinster pulled away in the closing stages to beat Edinburgh 49-31.
In a deceptively even first 20 minutes in Bordeaux, the hosts nosed ahead with a Maxime Lucu penalty, but after Cameron Woki breached the Leicester defence by reaching a long arm out to touch down from a ruck, the dam broke.
Winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, drew a crowd in the 25th minute before flipping a pass to fullback Salesi Rayasi who trotted over untouched.
After Bielle-Biarrey had an acrobatic 31st-minute effort in the corner ruled out, Leicester kicked their drop-out back to him, and the Six Nations player of the tournament beat five defenders and drew two more before sending the unsupervised Lucu loping home.
Two minutes after that, Bielle-Biarrey, starting deep in his own half, accelerated. He crisply sidestepped five defenders and only one even laid a despairing finger on the flying winger on his sprint to the line.
“I was just happy to score,” he said.
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Another France star, flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert, jinked through the Leicester defence after 38 minutes to send lock Maxime Lamothe lumbering over.
Centre Izaia Perese replied for Leicester early in the second half but replacement prop Ben Tameifuna immediately responded for the hosts. That try, like the first four, was converted by Lucu who then headed to the bench.
After replacement centre Billy Searle again hit back for Leicester, Bordeaux replied with an eight-minute broadside of two tries by Rayasi either side of one by replacement centre Arthur Retiere, all converted by substitute flyhalf Hugo Reus.
Bordeaux will host runaway Top 14 leaders Toulouse in the quarter-finals next Sunday.
“They’re dominating the league outrageously, no matter which team they field,” said Bordeaux prop Jefferson Poirot. “To be honest, watching them is hard to take because they’re your potential future opponents.”
Bordeaux won when the teams met in a Champions Cup semi-final last season but lost in the Top 14 final.
“Our paths are quite intertwined as we always come up against them in our group and in the knockout stages,” said Lucu.
On Saturday, France centre Kalvin Gourgues scored two scintillating tries as Toulouse hammered Bristol 59-26.
“It doesn’t matter who we face, we’ll prepare the same way,” said Gourgues about the prospect of another encounter with Bordeaux.
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On Sunday, Leinster scored seven tries as they dominated Edinburgh in Dublin but set up four of the visitors’ five touchdowns with interceptions or handling errors.
After winger Darcy Graham scooped up a loose ball and sped away to score after 51 minutes, the Scottish side led by two points.
But three tries in eight minutes, by flank Josh van der Flier, replacement prop Tom Clarkson and centre Rieko Ioane wrapped up victory for the hosts who will host Sale next Sunday.
Sale’s George Ford won the battle of the England flyhalves on Saturday, kicking 16 points against Marcus Smith’s Harlequins in a 26-17 victory in west London.
– AFP
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Investec Champions Cup holders Bordeaux Bègles scored five tries in 18 first-half minutes as they thrashed visiting Leicester.The 64-14 victory set up a showdown against French champions Toulouse in the last eight. In Sunday’s late game, eight-time finalists Leinster pulled away in the closing stages to beat Edinburgh 49-31. In a deceptively even first 20 minutes in Bordeaux, the hosts… Read more →
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