Garry Ringrose's case for the defence crucial when Leinster face Bordeaux's best

Garry Ringrose during a Leinster training, session at Rosemount, UCD. Pic: ©INPHO/Grace Halton.

Penaud, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey. Jalibert and Lucu. There is something undeniably cool and evocative about those names. String them along the backline that Bordeaux-Begles bring to bear in Bilbao on Saturday and it’s a list that takes on a more menacing tone.

Bordeaux didn’t get to where they are – giants of the French game and reigning Champions Cup holders – without a fearsome pack and all the other accoutrements on and off the field that go into creating a side capable of hitting such heights.

That said, ask most people to pick out what it is that delights most about the Top 14 side ahead of their decider with Leinster and talk will inevitably turn to that back line with its roll call of world-class half-backs, centres and back three operators.

Garry Ringrose will admit that his diet of Top 14 rugby is a tad intermittent, if boosted in recent years by the fact that teammate Rabah Slamini invariably has some Canal+ games or highlights to share on his phone on the team bus.

Saturday’s Champions Cup final opponents are always one to catch the eye.

“I do admire the rugby that is being played. Five years ago maybe there was a perception of French rugby and anyone who still has that perception… No-one does, with how expansive and attacking the French teams are, and Bordeaux are leading the charge on that.”

YouTube highlights and compilations are one thing, but where does the line fall between instantaneous moments of individual brilliance and the scaffolding put in place around those players that allow them the opportunities to bring that out?

Noel McNamara’s role in all this is interesting.

You could be flippant and suggest that any attack coach worth their salt could flourish at a club with UBB’s wealth of talent, but players past and present have lauded the Clare man’s work and his philosophy has been consistent.

Go back to his days when he was head coach with the Ireland U20s and he was preaching the need to establish frameworks within which his players could take control and adapt on the fly. Ringrose thinks another factor merits mention in all this too.

“They have individuals that can do things that very few people in world rugby can do. But I feel from watching them they kind of earn the right to create those moments off the back of the work they do as a team.

Garry Ringrose is tackled by Owen Watkin and Evardi Boshoff of Ospreys. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

“I remember watching them against the Bulls at altitude [when Bordeaux-Begles won their first pool game last December] and they were winning the battles that you see some teams struggle with over there.

“I guess it’s a mental thing as well as a physical thing, but that shows their intent and work for each other which then creates moments that are rightly so are admired and applauded.”

Ringrose is certain to start for Leinster in midfield on Saturday. Facing him is almost guaranteed to be the tandem of Yoram Moefana and Damian Penaud, the latter having switched from wing into the more central channel.

It’s a brutally difficult assignment for Ringrose and his partner, whether that be Robbie Henshaw or Jamie Osborne, and how the provincial pair pressurise their opposite numbers with that blitz defence will be crucial to the outcome.

In fact, UBB’s attacking elan against Leinster dogged D could be the hinge on which this final swings.

Penaud is no stranger to the centre but it was still something of a surprise when he was named there for the Champions Cup quarter-final against Toulouse last month. Whatever about the position, his presence anywhere spells danger.

“He’s unbelievable the amount of tries he scores, but again it’s probably the unseen work that he does off the ball, like almost one of those Chris Ashton-type players who seems to know where the ball is going to be and reads the players around him really well.

“Defensively, obviously he’s a big man, strong, fronts up from a physical element. And I guess his pace shows on the wing. He’s hard to get around too. Unbelievably good player and it’s exciting to get a crack at playing him.”

Leinster have their own threats with ball in hand but it’s hard to see them come out the better in a high-scoring cracker. And it’s worth noting that they edged a tryless decider against Racing 92 in Bilbao eight years ago.

That was played on a wet and miserable day. The forecast this time is for a blazing sun but Ringrose has experienced countless vagaries in the course of his three Champions Cup final appearances to date and all were decided on the finest of margins.

“They can be high-scoring or low-scoring, so we’ll have to deal with whatever comes.”