Bordeaux Begles 23-14 Edinburgh, Stade Chaban-Delmas
Scorecard
A clinical first half performance proved decisive for Bordeaux-Begles as they defeated Edinburgh 23-14 in the quarter-final of the European Challenge Cup at Stade Chaban-Delmas on Saturday.
This will be back to back disappointment for Richard Cockerill's men who suffered a 19-22 defeat to Ulster in the semi-final of Pro14 earlier this month.
Bordeaux got off to a brisk start when Ulupano Seuteni won the ball allowing Santiago Cordero Pociello-Argerich to go over the line in the fifth minute and four minutes later they got their second try when Matthieu Jalibert offloaded to Jean-Baptiste Dubie as he went over the line. Jalibert also kicked both the conversions as they raced to a 14-0 lead.
Just around the half-hour mark, Jaco van der Walt got Edinburgh got their first points on the board with a three-pointer that reduced their deficit to 11 points in the opening half which also saw the visitors lose Viliame Mata to injury.
The second half started with van der Walt and Jalibert exchange penalties before Edinburgh fought back through Damien Hoyland's try making the scoreline 17-11.
Jalibert with his second penalty goal increased Bordeaux's lead to nine points but they were forced to play the final 10 minutes with a player less as Ben Tameifuna was yellow-carded. However, with the additional player advantage all Edinburgh could manage was a penalty kick from Blair Kinghorn which was cancelled out by Ben Botica at the final minute.
Team line-ups:
Bordeaux-Begles - Ducuing, Cordero, Dubie, Seuteni, Lam, Jabibert, Lesgourgues, Poirot, Maynadier, Cobilas, Douglas, Marais, Diaby, Petti, Tauleigne.
Edinburgh - Kinghorn, Graham, Johnstone, Taylor, Hoyland, van der Walt, Shiel, Schoeman, McInally, Berghan, Toolis, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Watson, Mata.