{"id":206612,"date":"2025-06-23T02:43:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T02:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206612\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T02:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T02:43:17","slug":"the-bit-of-bulls-bordeaux-have-dismissed-ahead-of-top-14-final-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206612\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘bit of bulls***’ Bordeaux have dismissed ahead of Top 14 final : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jefferson Poirot has dismissed the revenge factor heading into next Saturday\u2019s Top 14 final rematch between Bordeaux and Toulouse. The loosehead\u2019s club were battered in last year\u2019s French decider, losing 3-59 in a desperately one-sided affair in Marseille.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Toulouse have since topped the 2024\/25 regular-season table, finishing 12 points clear of second-place Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Poirot, though, insisted the build-up to next weekend\u2019s rematch in Paris won\u2019t be affected by all the talk outside the camp about revenge for last season humiliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no room for emotion,\u201d he insisted following Bordeaux\u2019s 39-24 semi-final win over Toulon on Saturday night<\/a> in Lyon. \u201cRevenge, all that, it\u2019s a bit of bulls***.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that a final is won on small details: a good conquest, ground play, defence\u2026 Okay, we have a good attack, we talk about it a lot, but defence is very important too, and we made mistakes again this Saturday evening. We\u2019re going to try to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since last summer\u2019s defeat in the final, Bordeaux have beaten Toulouse three times in succession. They won both regular-season league encounters, winning 16-12 away last September and 32-24 at home in March. They also ended Toulouse\u2019s Champions Cup title defence with a 35-18 home success last month that was followed by victory in the final over Northampton in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mustn\u2019t let emotions get carried away\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

That triumph in the European decider came with a sting in the tail for Poirot as a post-match incident with Saints\u2019 Henry Pollock resulted in a two-match ban<\/a> that left him sidelined until this weekend\u2019s league semi-final. Fresh from his 54 minutes of action as the starting No 1, the prop shrugged off Bordeaux\u2019s recent run<\/a> of success against Toulouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, Toulouse in the final isn\u2019t the same team, the level of intensity they had last year in the final. The level of intensity they had in the final really surprised us. We thought they were really above us in terms of commitment. Toulouse in the final is never the same team.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year taught us a lesson. We remained very humble because last year, we were jubilant. We thought it was a done deal. We then experienced the worst sporting nightmare for the entire squad, including the coaching staff. We mustn\u2019t let emotions get carried away during this period. Maybe last year, we overdid it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to play Toulouse. Statistically, they are still the best team in the league by far in terms of forwards. They are the best team on the ball, they are the best attack, the best defence\u2026 In all honesty, we know what awaits us in that regard. We also saw (in their semi-final won over Bayonne) where they did a job, especially with Jack Willis. A real battle awaits us.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: Matt Williams predicts \u2018ferocious\u2019 Lions series two years after \u2018greatest Wallabies selection blunder in the professional era\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jefferson Poirot has dismissed the revenge factor heading into next Saturday\u2019s Top 14 final rematch between Bordeaux and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[36,225,83030,12,4151,79,5707,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-206612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-jefferson-poirot","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-top-14","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114730382359909531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}