San Mames will once again host the great festival of European club rugby

The stadium of San Mames will host this weekend, as it did in 2018, the great European club rugby festival with the finals of the Challenge Cupsecond continental competition, between Montpellier and Ulster (Friday, 9:00 p.m.), and Champions Cup, who will play Leinster and Union Bordeaux (Saturday, 3:45 p.m.).

The presence in the Biscayan capital of nearly 100,000 visitorsespecially French and Irish, but also national and other European countries with a tradition in the sport of oval ball to enjoy the matches that will decide the new continental champions of the EPCR (European Professional Club Rugby) tournaments.

On Friday the match between the Montpellier Hérault, who is seeking his third title after those won in 2016 and 2021, and the Ulster Northern Irishman, back to a European final after a 14-year hiatus.

On paper, The French XV is a slight favorite in the predictions. Montpellier arrives undefeated in this decisive match against an Ulster that is struggling in its domestic competition, but that, however, does not know defeat in direct confrontations with the Occitan team.

In the last of them, in the 2024 edition of this same competition, the Northern Irish eliminated Montpellier in the round of 16 in their own stadium.

The big event of the weekend will arrive on Saturday with the match between the current champions, the French Union Bordeaux-Bègles, and the Irish Leinsterthe team that lifted the trophy in Bilbao in 2018 at the premiere of ‘La Catedral’ as the venue for the finals.

The whole of Dublin, one of the classics of the competitionwill play in his ninth ‘Champions’ final. The previous eight were settled with four titles, the last one in San Mamés when they defeated Racing 92, and four defeats, three of them consecutive in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The objective of Leo Cullen’s team, with a good handful of players who repeat from the 2018 editionis to return to the top of European rugby, breaking the predictions that point to it as a victim in the duel against a Union Bordeaux that has proven intractable throughout the tournament.

The champions, with devastating offensive power, They reach the final undefeated after having won their seven games also leading statistics such as points scored (305) or tries (45).

A Bordeaux victory would ratify French dominance in a ‘Champions’ that has not seen another winning country since the success of the English Exter Chiefs in 2019.

On the other hand, in addition to San Mamés, the other point of interest in Bilbao for the public will be in the fan zone installed in the Doña Casilda Park, where a giant screen will be installed to watch both matches for free.

In this ‘fan zone’, which will be open Friday and Saturday uninterruptedly from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m., a wide range of entertainment, music, and sports and cultural activities will also be offered.