"We aren't playing the final again" - Northampton eye European clash with Bordeaux as fresh chapter after 2025 Final woes

The sides now meet again in the group stage of the Champions Cup, and the Saints are eager to not reflect on the hard-fought defeat in club rugby's showpiece match. The two sides sit in pool four with 10 points each, thanks to two wins from two games, as well as two bonus points. The Saints are hoping to take home a win by focusing on the chance to play in an iconic stadium with a capacity crowd expected on hand at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Phil Dowson, the Northampton director of rugby, said: “The players enjoy testing themselves in the best places … we haven’t been to Bordeaux since 97/98, and we know it’s a great stadium of 35000 people.”

“I think from a European point of view, those away wins have been built on that atmosphere of going somewhere that’s really special.”

The Saints believe this game has nothing to do with their previous meeting at the Champions Cup final. This is a new game, within a new season. Dowson continued, “we aren’t playing the final again. We’ve got to make sure we’re not playing that game again. We are playing a different game. My expectation is, this is league game, there are five points on offer, I expect us to go for five points.”

Winger Tommy Freeman, reiterated this: “we’re focusing on it as a new competition and a new year, we’ll take a lot of learnings from that final and we’ll give them something a bit different and go as hard as we can at what we’re good at.”

Regarding being termed the underdogs, the England and Lions star said: “we want to change that narrative and be considered a threat.”

Northampton will face the game against Bordeaux on Sunday with a largely different team due key players, such as George Furbank and James Ramm being removed early on. The unexpected injuries in play meant the team had to quickly adapt and were unable to defeat the Bordeaux side. There are still injuries within the Saints squad such as Frazer Dingwall and Josh Kermeny, yet overall, the squad is in a fit position.

A player who played the full game in the final and will be eager to play is the dynamic back row Henry Pollock. The youngest member of the 2025 Lions tour was involved with a post-match incident after Jefferson Poirot grabbed him by the throat after the game.

Freeman, however, is not concerned with this affecting Pollocks performance on Sunday. He said: “You can’t listen to much; Pollack has probably been a helping hand in that case of ignoring the outside noise and not really caring. It’s about what we can control in our circle.”