{"id":988963,"date":"2026-05-27T23:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/988963\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:16:22","slug":"victor-matfield-insists-ireland-should-be-worried-after-leinster-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/988963\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Matfield insists Ireland should be ‘worried’ after Leinster loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Victor Matfield believes that Leinster\u2019s abject Investec Champions Cup defeat will be a concern for Andy Farrell after they failed to live with Bordeaux-Begles in the final.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Frenchmen overwhelmed the Irish province, particularly in the first half, to secure the silverware with a dominant 41-19 triumph in Bilbao.<\/p>\n

Leo Cullen\u2019s men struggled with the pace and intensity of Bordeaux, who easily got the better of their opponents physically and cut through the defence with ease.<\/p>\n

Leinster<\/a> form the majority of the Ireland<\/a> side and Matfield reckons that it could have a knock-on effect looking ahead to the inaugural Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

Leinster bullied<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be a worry for Ireland, they just got dominated physically. We all talk about [Maxime] Lucu and [Matthieu] Jalibert, and that backline of Bordeaux, but I thought it was the forward pack,\u201d he said on the Rivals podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the collisions, in every collision Bordeaux were going forward. Even on defence, they were just stopping Leinster in their tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Springboks<\/a> record cap holder also reserved plenty of praise for Bordeaux and suggested to fellow panellist, Sir John Kirwan, that the Frenchmen could compete against the best Test sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a performance by Bordeaux. In the past I\u2019ve always thought, because Leinster is an international team, with that Blues team in your day JK, we had that Bulls team that really did well in Super Rugby, I wonder if you take that whole team and play against the All Blacks or Springboks or Irish team, how it would go,\u201d Matfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Bordeaux showed, if you\u2019ve got a proper club team that knows each other \u2013 it\u2019s there, they just understand each other \u2013 they could take on international teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett\u2019s verdict on Leinster\u2019s Champions Cup defeat: \u2018I might have to try to go back\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

That prompted Kirwan to link it to the upcoming Greatest Rivalry series where the All Blacks<\/a> will be facing the best franchises South Africa has to offer, even if they might be without some of their top Springboks.<\/p>\n

Kirwan on facing \u2018horrible\u2019 club teams<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I love about the rivals tour because some of the worst games you play when you\u2019re on tour [are against club teams]. I remember playing Randwick, it was just horrible because they were a really good side,\u201d the All Blacks legend said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Bordeaux) were so superior to Leinster, they\u2019ve got to be worried about that. I saw the interviews afterwards and I know they\u2019re probably going to have a go at Cullen and get rid of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a great season, making the final, but making the final five times and losing, do you think there is a difference at that level between getting there and winning, or do you just think it\u2019s become psychological?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were pretty average in that first half, so many errors. They couldn\u2019t get any rhythm because they kept making dumb errors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s mentality has been questioned over the years having consistently failed to get over the line, but Matfield did not believe that was the case this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s because of the pressure [from Bordeaux],\u201d he said. \u201cAll the others they were favourites going into it, this year they weren\u2019t the favourites \u2013 Bordeaux was definitely the favourite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the pressure was on them. They also won the URC last year, they got that bogey off their back, I just think they got completely outplayed.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-Ireland player explains why \u2018supporter animosity\u2019 at Leinster hasn\u2019t reached \u2018tipping point\u2019 but feels Ciaran Frawley \u2018punishment didn\u2019t match the crime\u2019<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Matfield believes that Leinster\u2019s abject Investec Champions Cup defeat will be a concern for Andy Farrell after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":988964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4102],"tags":[225,191668,678,4306,12,4151,2196,79,16,15,130648],"class_list":["post-988963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-investec-champions-cup","tag-ireland","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-victor-matfield"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116649091980490771","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988963","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=988963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}