Ulster v Bordeaux match preview

Ulster takes on Bordeaux in round 2 of the Challence Cup in what will be a very exciting match.

Ulster

The Irish would look to have a better performance after a very bad 61-21 loss against Toulouse in round 1.

Having only made 76% tackles against Toulouse, that is something they would like to fix against the fast backs of Bordeaux. One strong area they can take with them from the previous match is scrums. They won 100% of their scrums against Toulouse.

Bordeaux

The French team came from a 14-21 down at half time to beat Leicester Tigers 42-28 in round 1 of the Champions Cup.

They made 16 clean breaks, 15 offloads and beat 15 defenders in their opening game and that is something Ulster should be looking out for. Bordeaux kicked 40 times in their opening match and that is an area Ulster can attack from.

Last time out

Bordeaux's previous visit to Belfast was seven years ago, when the French side edged a close 22-26 match at Kingspan Stadium.

Former Ulster Rugby players, Steven Kitshoff and Ian Madigan, played for the French side back in the 2017 fixture, with Madigan scoring two penalties and two conversions against the side he would later join.

Ulster outscored by Bordeaux by three tries to two on the day, with Andrew Trimble, Franco van der Merwe and Darren Cave scoring for the home side.

The result finished off a disappointing campaign for Les Kiss's side, finishing bottom of the pool.

The match kicks off 17h15 at Kingspan Stadium.

Squads

tbc