Biarritz played its first match in seven years at the opening of the Top 14 season on Saturday afternoon. Clearly domineering and supercharged for more than an hour, the BO signed a resounding comeback by winning clearly (27-15) against Bordeaux-Bègles, who reacted too late.
Aguilera dreamed of it, the soundtrack did it! For Biarritz Olympique’s comeback in Top 14, seven years after the Biarritz club’s relegation to Pro D2, the Basques obtained a resounding victory (27-15) in front of their home crowd against Bordeaux-Bègles, last opponent faced by the BO in 2014 at the upper echelon before falling and waiting seven years to return. A dream comeback but above all a start to a meeting that even the most ardent supporters of the BO could not imagine in their prayers before the match. Unleashed, as they had already been at the end of last season with the apotheosis of this barrage won on penalties against the neighbor but also enemy Bayonne, Steffon Hermitage and his teammates stepped on this UBB team who has never seemed on his plate to the chagrin of his emblematic manager Christophe Urios, annoyed on the sidelines.
Author of the first try of the meeting (24th), five minutes after having opened the mark on his first penalty, and a few seconds before transforming his own try, English opener Brett Herron, who arrived from the Harlequins in the offseason, has started hostilities, imitated eight minutes later (32nd) by hooker Lucas Peyresblanque, also came to materialize, at the conclusion of an open scrum, the phenomenal going of the BO for his reunion with the Top 14.
Herron already adopted
At half-time (17-3), Biarritz already practically held its victory. It was no longer a shadow of a doubt when Romain Lonca, one of the other Biarritz heroes of the day, took advantage of a new interception (this time signed Barnabé Couilloud) to drive the point home and then offer the bonus offensive to the Basques (24-3) after only 45 minutes of play. Herron, on a new kick, gave a layer a little later, under the eyes of Girondins not only spectators on this penalty of the Briton.
And it was not the converted try of the former Perpignanais Alban Roussel at the end of the match (71st) which changed anything in the fate of his team in this first match of the season, nor that of Yoram Moefana, come to regret three minutes from the end of the UBB (77th) for not having set the alarm earlier. Perfect start for Shaun Sowerby and his men, executioners on Saturday of their neighbors to the delight of an Aguilera stadium, which is already asking for more and did not stop singing his pleasure. He did not dare to hope for such a demonstration for the first match of the BO in Top 14 for seven years.
TOP 14 / DAY 1
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Biarritz – Bègles-Bordeaux: 27-15
4:05 p.m .: Brive – Perpignan
4:05 p.m .: Castres – Pau
6.15 p.m .: Stade Français – Racing 92
9:05 p.m .: Toulon – Montpellier
Sunday September 5, 2021
5.45 p.m .: Lyon – Clermont
9:05 p.m .: La Rochelle – Toulouse