As things stand at the halfway point of the 2023/2024 European Rugby Champions Cup pool stage, the favourites to lift the trophy at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next May are undoubtedly Toulouse, with them racking up 99 points during their matches against Cardiff and Harlequins and playing some outstanding rugby in the process of doing so.
However, there are others circling with intent should Europe’s most successful club experience any slip-ups, with a number of teams joining them in winning both matches so far. One of those is Toulouse’s fellow Top 14 club Bordeaux Bègles, which might surprise a few people seeing as their domestic form has been very inconsistent, but their meetings with Connacht and Bristol Bears showed that they are still a force to be reckoned with on their day, with them scoring 77 points and conceding just 22.
This tactical analysis will take a closer look at Bordeaux and will show why they are a team that cannot be ruled out of anything just yet, highlighting the many positives in their play when it comes to tactics and squad options, as well as showing where they are currently letting themselves down and how they can tighten up both in the Top 14 and on the continent.
Attacking the space
When watching Bordeaux Bègles play, what becomes immediately apparent is the way that they constantly look to attack the space ahead of them, and they have a number of ways of executing that side of their game which adds to the often-unpredictable nature of their play.
The primary way that they do so though is by staying wide and making the pitch as big as possible whenever they are in possession, and doing so has really aided their attacking play this season due to it providing them with constant passing options and ways to shift the ball around the field and retain it if there are no spaces ahead of them that they can exploit.
It also means that they can capitalise on those moments when their opponents become compact in their bid to surround the ball and to prevent quick breaks, just as Montpellier full-back Julien Tisseron has done here. As a result, versatile back Pablo Uberti now has a free route ahead of him to attack into, and all that Bordeaux need to do now is to shift the ball out to him before Montpellier can react and drift back across to cut him off, which former Harlequins centre Ben Tapuai does well and which leads to the home side scoring an easy try.
Montpellier have been one of the Top 14’s strugglers this season, with them currently languishing at the foot of the table after winning just one of their opening nine matches, and these defensive lapses are perhaps to be expected from them as a result. However, that in itself doesn’t score tries, with good spatial awareness and pinpoint passing still required, and Bordeaux have certainly shown that they are capable of capitalising on these errors whenever they do come about.
As mentioned though, Bordeaux have played with a lot of variety this season, and that is shown through them not only attacking down the wings but also through the middle, again breaching opposing lines as soon as the gaps open up and the opportunities to run through them present themselves. In this case, France scrum-half Maxime Lucu, who has often captained Bordeaux this season, has picked the ball up from the back of the ruck but has not looked to pass it, with him instead running up the field and breaking through the Connacht back line instead and with relative ease.
Whilst there is definitely an argument to say that Connacht tucked in too much here and could have defended this move better, Lucu does deserve a lot of credit for reading the play, finding the chance and then showing initiative to take it rather than hesitating, and it is these qualities that have led to the scrum-half being France’s second-choice in the nine role during the 2023 Six Nations and Rugby World Cup.
However, he does need support to ensure that the chance leads to something here, and that leads to the other key point in Bordeaux’s play, in that there is a constant sense of players being on the same page and recognising where they can help each other out. In this case, Lucu’s run is matched by full-back Romain Buros, who receives the ball and then sets up Uberti to score here, and it is that ability to make the initial break but then to be efficient and clinical that has led to Bordeaux being so difficult to keep out.
They have been able to mix things up as well, again adding to that unpredictability in their play, with them not only looking to keep the ball in hand but also showing an ability to kick it forwards too.
In this case, the ball has once again been retrieved from the breakdown, but scrum-half Paul Abadie has this time not opted to run forward as Lucu did or to shift the ball towards the wings. Instead, he has instantly looked to put the ball high into the air, with the intention of causing momentary confusion among the Racing 92 players and giving his teammates the opportunity to run between them and to gather the ball with the try line at their mercy.
On this occasion, the sequence worked seamlessly, with centre Nicolas Depoortère reacting quickest to the box kick and getting underneath it before securing the try for Bordeaux, and he has been one of the team’s key threats with his pace and precision for that reason. However, it is the wider identification of space and ability to exploit it in a number of ways that is the really important point to take here, and there is definitely a need to factor this in when considering why Bordeaux have been so tough to defend against on the whole.
Damian Penaud
The likes of Uberti and Depoortère have undoubtedly played their part in making Bordeaux Bègles such a handful this season, but the player that has really stood out for them whenever they have been in possession is star winger Damian Penaud, with the France flyer joining from Clermont Auvergne in the summer and really helping his new team to elevate their game in so many ways.
The thing about Penaud is that he is mainly used by the national team as someone who stays on the wings and finishes moves off, but what Bordeaux have realised is that using his skillset in other ways can allow more chances to be created and can create additional problems for opponents.
Here, for example, he has moved infield to play effectively as an outside centre whilst Japan back rower Tevita Tatafu, playing at number 8 in this game, has moved outside him to take over as the winger, and this does at first appear strange given that it sees a forward needing to show the same pace as a winger in order to help Bordeaux over the line, whilst Penaud is in an area where the chances of him being prematurely tackled have been significantly increased.
However, what becomes clear as the sequence goes on is that Yannick Bru’s team have a very specific idea in mind here for how they can best use Penaud, with Buros passing directly to Tatafu here before the back-rower feeds the ball back inside for the winger to run onto. By making this rapid change of direction with the ball, they have succeeded in tempting Connacht centre Cathal Forde towards Tatafu and have taken him out of the game, immediately putting Connacht at a numerical disadvantage in their backfield and allowing Penaud to secure five points for his side here.
Penaud was in fine form in Limerick, but that is not the only time that he has been seen in alternative areas of the pitch, with a lot of what Bordeaux have done well coming through him accessing different spaces and helping to connect the play as well as to score points. During the visit of Bristol at the weekend, he was acting almost as a fly-half at times, meaning that he could combine his usual direct running and sharp changes of direction with a wide passing range and yet more clever identification of where the gaps were and where his teammates could break through the Bears’ rearguard.
In this case, that led to him setting up fellow France winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey (who is widely regarded as one of France’s most promising players) to score a try here and to further extend Bordeaux’s lead, and the fact that he had turned from finisher to creator here shows how varied his role has been at Stade Chaban-Delmas and why he has been central to his new side being so positive and clinical whenever they have had the ball.
Defensive issues
However, despite all of the positivity mentioned so far in this scout report, it does need to be pointed out that Bordeaux Bègles have been far from perfect, with the attacking side of things looking really sharp but their defensive play at times leaving a lot to be desired.
The key concern whenever they are out of possession has tended to revolve around their reaction times whenever they are under pressure, with them mostly having a solid setup but then not reading what is happening in front of them in time and therefore making it easy for opposing sides to break through between them. In this case, Perpignan have launched an attack and Italy fly-half Tommaso Allan has identified the space between Argentina lock Guido Petti and France centre Yoram Moefana as the area where he feels that he can have an impact and can cause Bordeaux problems.
The fact that he started his run from in front of both players should have meant that they could have closed the gap and made an attempt to tackle him before this, but neither seemed alive to the situation until Allan had got between them, with Moefana on the back foot here whilst Petti only commits to a tackle once Allan has already got most of his body behind him. As a result, the former Harlequins player was able to offload the ball to flanker Jaco van Tonder here rather than being forced to recycle it in a ruck, leading to Perpignan getting over the line.
It is not only in open play that they have left a lot to be desired when out of possession, with set pieces also proving to be a problem area for them as the campaign has gone on. Here, Pau have taken a lineout and have made a rapid exit from it, and yet Bordeaux at this stage were still shifting across the field as if to try and engage in a maul and to stop the drive from happening.
As a result, when the ball came back to hooker Youri Delhommel here, he had enough space ahead of him to ground the ball without being under any significant pressure, and Bordeaux were again left wondering how they had let their opponents score so easily. Therefore, again, whilst the attack has looked very effective so far, these constant defensive issues are holding them back from reaching their true potential, and there is no doubt that they will need to tidy them up if they are to improve on last season’s league and cup placings.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at Top 14 side Bordeaux Bègles, who have started the European season in fine form but who have looked a little shaky at times in the league.
Bordeaux are always an interesting team to watch, because their style of play is attractive and relies on them playing on the front foot where possible as they look to dominate the ball and keep exposing their opponents’ weak points. However, rugby, like any team sport, is a game of balance and relies on defending well too, and, as the analysis has shown, this is what is currently letting them down and which will prohibit them from matching their pre-season targets and aspiration if they don’t work on them.
Therefore, whilst there is a lot that the players, coaches and those watching from the stands can be pleased about, there is definitely still room for growth and improvement, and it will be interesting to keep an eye on them as the season goes on to see how far they can go and if they do can find the consistency in results and performances that is currently eluding them.