Gloucester vs Bordeaux was 36-36, with the clock past 80 minutes, when Bordeaux got a scrum 25 metres from the Gloucester line. Their pack drove and Gloucester’s broke up. Referee Gianluca Gnecchi gave no penalty.
“The referee showed all his experience by not making a decision,” Bordeaux manager Yannick Bru told Rugbyrama afterwards (translated from French). Bordeaux knocked on at that scrum, and the game was over.
Gloucester, top of the Premiership, had led the holders 36-29 with 19 minutes left. Will Trenholm scored twice within five minutes of coming off the bench. Bordeaux were level two minutes later.
The draw, in round one of the 2026/27 Champions Cup, ended Bordeaux-Bègles’ run of 16 straight wins in the competition. Each side scored five tries.
Should Bordeaux have had the penalty at that last scrum, yes or no?
Trenholm’s double put Gloucester 36-29 up
Scrum-half Martin Page-Relo put Bordeaux ahead in the fourth minute. Gloucester lock Arthur Clark, who had missed the previous week with back spasms, replied almost at once.
Centre Max Llewellyn and full-back George Barton scored either side of a Sipili Falatea try, and a Barton penalty made it 24-17 at the break.
Pablo Uberti and wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey had Bordeaux in front again, 29-24, early in the second half. Back-rower Will Trenholm came off the bench in the 55th minute, scored in the 56th and again in the 60th, and Gloucester led 36-29.
Two minutes later Bielle-Biarrey, on his 100th appearance for the club, finished a break by Maxime Lucu for his second try. Nobody scored in the last 17 minutes.
READ ALSO: Pool 3 and the new top-three and bonus-point rules, explained in the Champions Cup preview
Gloucester vs Bordeaux stats: 515 metres to 321
Gloucester gained 515 metres to Bordeaux’s 321, according to the official figures reported by Le Rugbynistère. They had 53.75 per cent of the ball and made 142 passes to 86.
Bordeaux started Ben Tameifuna, usually a tighthead prop, at lock. Gloucester’s scrum won penalties against them, and a lost Bordeaux feed set up Max Llewellyn’s try.
Bru admitted as much afterwards: “We were overwhelmed in the contact” (translated from French). He still judged the draw broadly fair.
Key facts
- Score: Gloucester 36-36 Bordeaux-Bègles (24-17 at half-time)
- When and where: Friday 16 October 2026, Kingsholm, round one, crowd 12,102
- Player of the match: Will Trenholm, two tries within five minutes of coming on
- Bordeaux: 16-match Champions Cup winning run ended, unbeaten in 17 (Le Rugbynistère)
Bordeaux matched five tries on 46 per cent of the ball
With Matthieu Jalibert absent, Lucu, a scrum-half by trade, wore 10 and kicked 11 points, including a penalty from 55 metres.
Back-rower Tom Willis beat nine defenders and completed 13 tackles. Bordeaux made nine line breaks to Gloucester’s 13.
Barton’s conversion of Trenholm’s first try came back off the post at 29-29. With five minutes left, a Will Knight offload just missed Caolan Englefield, who had a run to the line.
Going backwards in a scrum is no offence in itself. The law lets a side win the ball by pushing, so Gnecchi needed to see a specific infringement, such as a deliberate collapse.
Le Rugbynistère went through the footage of that last scrum. Its angle shows Bordeaux on top, but not who broke the scrum first.
Five tries each, and no bonus point for either side
Both sides take two points. A try bonus now needs three more tries than the opposition, so five each earned nothing extra. Under last season’s rules, both would have taken three.
Gloucester’s next Champions Cup game is at Racing 92 on 13 December. They host the Stormers on 9 January and finish at Munster, where Jack Crowley was ruled out until January. Captain Dewi Lake went off in the 52nd minute.
Gloucester had the better of the first hour and spent 28 minutes in front to Bordeaux’s 19. They were hanging on at the last scrum. Was 36-36 a draw earned against the champions, or a win given away at 36-29?
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