Bordeaux battle Bristol Bears

The penultimate fixture of the round sees Brodeaux taking on Bristol Bears at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

The home side opened their campaign with a low-scoring, 4-point win over Northampton Saints. It was a strange encounter as Saints seemed to play most of the rugby while Bordeaux were sloppy in their discipline, giving away a brace of yellow cards. Yet, somehow, they emerged victorious after Saints simply could not better their opponents’ score. Adding insult to injury was the fact that it was Saints’ 12^th consecutive loss.

Bordeaux pulled their socks up in Round 2, however, and drilled Dragons 47-8. They were still far from their best, though, with constant errors and penalties slowing their momentum.

Bristol, currently the top team in the Premiership, were outdone in Round 1 by Clermont. While it was not a great defensive effort by the Bears – with Clermont running in a total of 7 tries, Pat Lam’s charges showed good character to fight their way back into the game.

Things looked better for Bristol in Round 2, however, as they put Connacht away 27-18. It was a game which took a while to heat up – the first score coming in the 35^th minute – but, once it did, it turned into an entertaining contest.

With rain expected, the game will probably evolve into a tight, forward-orientated battle. Bordeaux will need to up their game significantly from the previous 2 rounds if they are to threaten Bristol who are playing great rugby at the moment.