Joey Carbery has missed out on the Bordeaux Bègles matchday squad for their Champions Cup final against Northampton at the Principality Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 2.45pm, live on RTÉ and Premier Sports).
Although he has played in virtually every UBB game in recent months, and started the Round of 16 win over Ulster, as against his former team Munster in the semi-finals, Carbery is a victim of the decision by head coach Yannick Bru to go with a 6-2 split on the bench.
Carbery, who won a Champions Cup with Leinster in 2017-18 when an unused sub in the final against Racing 92 in Bilbao, has played 20 games for UBB since joining them last summer, seven of them off the bench.
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He is particularly unlucky to miss out on the club’s first Champions Cup final after playing in five of their seven games en route to the decider, starting the wins over Ulster and the Sharks in the pool stages, as well as that Round of 16 game.
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Bordeaux Bègles have been given a significant boost by the inclusion of Damian Penaud, who has been sidelined since what looked like a season-ending ankle injury in their convincing 35-18 semi-final win over Toulouse three weeks ago left him in tears. Penaud has scored 21 tries this season for club and country, including a record 12 in this Champions Cup campaign, and looked like his sprightly self in their Friday Captains Run under the enclosed Principality Stadium roof.
The starting XV remains unchanged from that semi-final, with the only two alterations on the bench seeing the return of prop Ugo Boniface and centre Rohan Janse Van Rensburg at the expense of Carbery.
Northampton have also welcomed back England fullback George Furbank, although he has only played one game in the calendar year since suffering a broken arm last December.
Curtis Langdon, James Ramm and Alex Coles have all recovered from injuries in last week’s 28-24 win over Saracens, with Ramm switching from fullback to wing and Coles from the secondrow to blindside compared to the starting XV in their 37-34 semi-final win over Leinster.
Tom Lockett is named in the secondrow, with Josh Kemeny and Henry Pollock shifting to seven and eight, compared to that semi-final in the absence of the Ulster-bound Juarno Augustus, who is not expected to feature again this season due to an injury during training before the Saracens match.
Union Bordeaux Bègles: Romain Buros; Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Jefferson Poirot, Maxime Lamothe, Sipili Falatea, Adam Coleman, Cyril Cazeaux, Mahamadou Diaby, Guido Petti, Pete Samu. Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg
Northampton Saints: George Furbank; Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall (capt), Rory Hutchinson, James Ramm; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Emmanuel Iyogun, Curtis Langdon, Trevor Davison; Temo Mayanavanua, Tom Lockett; Alex Coles, Josh Kemeny, Henry Pollock. Replacements: Craig Wright, Tarek Haffar, Elliot Millar-Mills, Ed Prowse, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Ollie Sleightholme
