Leinster desperate to tear up Bordeaux’s script in Champions Cup final cauldron

With temperatures in the mid-30s expected, Leo Cullen’s side will need to be at their best to avoid another sad denouement to a French drama

There was a very different feel when Leinster last came to Bilbao for a Champions Cup final. In 2018 it was wet, grey and could have passed for Ballsbridge in March. Not so this time with temperatures in the mid-30s and another baking afternoon in store for their rendezvous with the warm – in every sense – favourites Bordeaux-Bègles.

When Leinster’s fair-skinned head coach, Leo Cullen, walked out for the eve-of-match captain’s run it was reminiscent of a David Attenborough film featuring a lone polar bear on a fast-melting iceberg. There will be no hiding place for heavy tight forwards, a factor exacerbated by the game kicking off in mid-afternoon. Apparently an evening slot was impossible for French TV because of a clash with – wait for it – the Cannes film festival closing ceremony.