Bordeaux-Bègles have been sensational in the Investec Champions Cup pool matches and their hosting of the Sharks is going to be a ripper of a contest that emphasises the quality of the competition.
The origins of Bordeaux as a club is fascinating and their success in the past decade has belied a team with such a short history in the top flights of French, European and now world club rugby.
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The club was founded in 2006 after a merger between two Bordeaux clubs, Stade Bordelais and Club Athlétique Bordeaux-Bègles Gironde. Today they are recognised as one of the most powerful teams in France’s TOP 14 and in the Investec Champions Cup.
The club playing squad is a blend of some of France’s finest international talent and several foreign players, who are as popular as they are good at playing the game.
The most popular import would be Tongan captain Ben Tameifuna, Ben, famed for his all-round skills as much as his 150-kilogram frame, played most of his early rugby for New Zealand Super Rugby outfit the Chiefs, who are based in Hamilton in the Waikato province. He was capped for the New Zealand under 20s and included in the 2013 All Blacks squad but did not play a Test match.
He moved to France in 2015 and played 106 matches for Racing 92 before joining Bordeaux in 2020, where has played 109 matches. Tameifuna, born and raised in New Zealand, has also played 30 times for Tonga, with his qualification through ancestry.
Big Ben played an incredible 39 matches in the 2023/24 season, which included 27 for Bordeaux and 12 for Tonga, four of which were at the 2023 World Cup in France.
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Prop Carlu Sadie and veteran midfielder Rohan Janse van Rensburg add the South African flavour to a foreign contingent that includes Argentina lock Guido Petti, Scotland lock Jonny Gray, former Wallabies lock Adam Coleman, who now plays for Tonga, Japan’s Tevita Tatafu, Ireland flyhalf Joe Carberry and former Crusaders and Wallabies loose forward Pete Samu.
Janse van Rensburg played his only Test for the Springboks, against Wales in Cardiff, in 2016 but has played professionally since 2013 at the Bulls, Lions, Sale Sharks, Durban-based Sharks and Canon Eagles in Japan.
He joined Bordeaux last season.
France’s electric wingers Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey are rated as among the best in the competition and French international flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert completes the potency of a back division that has shredded defences in the Investec Champions Cup and TOP 14 this season.
The Sharks, in extremely challenging playing conditions in Durban a week ago, lost 20-8 to defending Investec Champions Cup and TOP 14 title holders Toulouse and all their players have acknowledged the enormity of winning against Bordeaux in France.
Many critics have claimed that the Investec Champions Cup winner will be a straight shootout between the competition’s two most successful clubs in Toulouse and Ireland’s Leinster but anyone writing off the title aspirations of Bordeaux hasn’t been watching them play in the past few seasons.
They were hot last year and they are even hotter in 2025.
Photo: Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images
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