If it doesn’t break you, it can make you, the saying goes, and certainly it was the kind of experience that might have broken lesser teams. They strained every sinew in reaching their first final last June only to be beaten 59-3 by Toulouse in the biggest game of their history, an embarrassment which lingered throughout last summer and beyond.
The only way of fully exorcising the demons from the most one-sided final in the 133-year history of the French Championship was to lift silverware and it tells us much about Bordeaux Bègles as a club and a team that, having dethroned Toulouse in the semi-finals with a third victory over them this season, they have done just that by winning their first Champions Cup.
“There’s absolutely no doubt about it, it was catastrophic; it was a nightmare,” agreed their attack coach Noel McNamara in the aftermath of UBB making more positive history.
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“Everything that could go wrong went wrong,” he said, stating that “the healing started” with an opening day win over Stade Francais.
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“But ultimately, it was about getting to a final and getting over the line because as it goes on pressure builds a little bit more and if we didn’t get over the line today pressure builds a little more again.”
A key learning and factor here was ensuring the squad was fresher at the business end of the season and McNamara cited the summer acquisition of Jonny Gray, Joey Carbery and Rohan Janse van Rensburg, even though only the latter played here and for eight minutes at that.
“I do think we did learn from that final. It is a scar but often scar tissue can be stronger and I think we showed a lot of character as well.”
From Clare to Here, you could write a song about it. It’s a road less travelled but McNamara is the only Irish coach thus far this season to be a champion.
On an increasingly impressive CV this looks like the highlight to date, but McNamara told The Irish Times: “I’ve always had the same sensation regardless of whether it was winning the schools Cup with Clongowes or whether it was winning a Grand Slam with the Irish 20s, it’s a sense of relief.
“You think very quickly about the people that have helped you to get to this point and at the final whistle I thought about my family and the sacrifices that they have made, and I hope that it repays some of the faith that they’ve shown in me.”
As well as his wife Sinead and their three young daughters Iseult, Aarya and Portia, McNamara’s two sisters Joanne Hickey and Edel O’Connor, and her son Sebastian, were among the Principality crowd.
“But, honestly, it’s a sense of relief and your mind quickly switches to the next challenge,” he continued. “The journey for me is genuinely more enjoyable than the destination and I don’t coach for days like this, I coach because I love coaching. I love helping people get better, building a collective together and that’s what I hope to continue to do.”
Having signed on for another two years, he couldn’t be in a better place right now.
“This is very special. You grow up watching this competition, it holds a really special place in Irish people’s hearts. I think for me it’s about that feeling of belonging. I think that’s what it always has been for Irish teams, they want to belong and be able to compete against the best teams in Europe and for us it was no different. We wanted to belong, to show that we deserved to be here and that it was on merit.”
Carbery, while happy, understandably didn’t look entirely content amid the post-match celebrations after missing out on the match day 23. But this was his second well-earned Champions Cup winners’ medal. While an unused sub in Leinster’s win over Racing 92 in Bilbao in 2018, Carbery has again made five appearances in this triumph, including three as a starter compared to two seven years ago.
“We’ve got a very deep squad and some fantastic players, and I think Joey is absolutely deserving of his medal,” said McNamara. “He’s made a significant contribution and there’s not that many Irish players who have two Champions Cup winners’ medals,” said McNamara, adding that Carbery would have been in the 23 with a 5-3 split and will still have a big role to play this season.
UBB sit second in the Top 14, five points clear of Toulon, whom they face away next Sunday before hosting Vannes on Saturday week.
Whatever happens, UBB will henceforth have one star on their claret or blue jerseys, but this doesn’t feel like a one-off.
“One hundred per cent,” said McNamara. “I said to the boys last week that win or lose, we chase the next opportunity on Monday regardless, and we’ve been very clear. This is not a destination, this is an important point on our journey.
“Getting over the line might manage to release us a little bit. We’ve got a fantastic opportunity in the Top 14 over the next few weeks. Toulon away next Sunday will be a big challenge for us to get everyone back down to ground but that’s exactly what we want.
“We want to play in these games, we want these challenges, we want these privileges. It’s not about getting to this point and saying it’s fantastic,” said McNamara.
“There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t continue to go from strength and ultimately that’s the objective. That’s the goal of the club.”
