AS THE TRAIN meandered through the southwest of France, the lads from Ratoath in Meath played cards and cracked cans open and put the world right.
Away weekends like this one are what the Champions Cup is all about.
Dublin Airport had been packed with Leinster players and staff on Friday morning, with the senior team destined for Bayonne for the main event and a Leinster academy team taking off for Toulouse, where they will play the Top 14 giants’ espoirs team today. That fixture has been a few years in the making, but Leinster hope it’s the first of many like it.
Those of us landing in Toulouse but bound for Bayonne hopped onto the train – France does them very well – and the route meandered through a few proud rugby towns.
Lannemezan play in Nationale 2, the fourth tier of the French rugby leagues.
Tarbes won the French championship back in 1973, but they’re now at the bottom of the Nationale 1.
Pau are flying high, second in the Top 14 and playing some cracking stuff.
This part of the country is jammed with respected rugby clubs, many of whom can hark back to better days but remain pillars of their communities in the towns and villages of southwestern France. Rugby is king in these parts.
We even stopped in Lourdes along the way, although the Leinster fans onboard weren’t feeling the need to say a prayer. They’ll be hoping to see their team grab the bonus-point win that could see them secure top seeding for the Champions Cup knock-outs.
Standing in their way today will be a proud Bayonne team looking to defend their home of Stade Jean-Dauger.
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This is a club – L‘Aviron bayonnais rugby pro, to give them their official title – who epitomise l’esprit de clocher, which translates literally as ‘the spirit of the bell tower’ but really means parochialism.
The fierce pride with which French rugby teams play at home is well known, but Bayonne have been leaders in recent times.
They were promoted into the Top 14 for the 2022/23 season and built towards last season’s remarkable achievement of reaching the semi-finals, having beaten Clermont in the barrages clash they earned with a fourth-placed finish in the regular season.
To be fair, AB’s barrages win wasn’t a shock simply because they had been so brilliant at home.
They won all 13 of their 13 home games in the Top 14 last season. No one else had that perfect record.
This season, the Basque club are seven from seven at home so far. That success at the Jean Dauger has been important because they’ve won just once on the road.
It should be noted that Bayonne have lost at home this season but only in the Champions Cup, with an in-form Stormers side winning 26-17 when they visited last month. That one hurt L’Aviron.
As Leinster and their fans will understand today, Bayonne’s fans generate a cracking atmosphere at Stade Jean Dauger, which has a capacity of 14,500, with plans to expand in the next few years. It’s named after a legendary Bayonne player who was part of their championship-winning team in 1943, the last time the club were the kings of France.
Leo Cullen already knows what to expect, having done a recce in November. The Leinster boss took a trip with his son and his father to check out Bayonne. AB hammered Montauban that day, which most sides have done, but they’ve also beaten all the big dogs. The Top 14 often sees clubs rotate for away games but AB’s record is still formidable.
Ireland played Samoa here in their 2023 World Cup warm-up game and that one was loud despite the absence of the home club. The locals quickly took to the underdog Samoans and gave the Irish players more than a few booings.
Ireland have bad memories at the Jean-Dauger. The Battle of Bayonne before the 2007 World Cup left Brian O’Driscoll with a broken sinus after one sucker punch. Bayonne’s approach to the game was filthy.
They don’t usually go that far, but Bayonne bring an edge on home soil. The pre-match buzz tends to whip them into a frenzy.
Ireland played in Bayonne ahead of RWC23. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The pre-match showpiece is the club song, La Peña Baiona.
If you’ve never watched Bayonne or heard the song, you might recognise it from its adoption by the massive crowds at Stade de France during the 2023 World Cup. The French fans boomed it out at half-time of those games, and it sometimes pops up during international games. It even featured in the opening ceremony of that tournament.
It’s certainly up there as one of the greatest rugby songs in the world and while the lyrics are fairly straightforward, even a little trifling, it’s an absolute tour de force when the locals are belting it out passionately. There are genuinely people from other parts of France who support Bayonne because of La Peña Baiona.
This special town is about much more than rugby but even its other great attraction, the annual Fêtes de Bayonne, was started in the 1930s by a group of friends from l’Aviron bayonnais who had been to festivals in the Basque city of Pamplona in northern Spain.
They wanted their own version and so, the Fêtes de Bayonne lasts for five days every summer, with a festival of music, dancing, fireworks, and street performing. Decked out in white with red bandanas, the crowds in Bayonne for those occasions are remarkable. And, of course, they roar out La Peña Baiona on the opening night of the festival.
The rugby club wear light blue and white, but they attract support of a similarly buoyant timbre.
Whatever the outcome on the pitch at Stade Jean-Dauger today, this is a trip that any Leinster fans lucky enough to be here will have fond memories of.
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Leinster are visiting one of French rugby's treasures in Bayonne
AS THE TRAIN meandered through the southwest of France, the lads from Ratoath in Meath played cards and cracked cans open and put the world right.
Away weekends like this one are what the Champions Cup is all about.
Dublin Airport had been packed with Leinster players and staff on Friday morning, with the senior team destined for Bayonne for the main event and a Leinster academy team taking off for Toulouse, where they will play the Top 14 giants’ espoirs team today. That fixture has been a few years in the making, but Leinster hope it’s the first of many like it.
Those of us landing in Toulouse but bound for Bayonne hopped onto the train – France does them very well – and the route meandered through a few proud rugby towns.
Lannemezan play in Nationale 2, the fourth tier of the French rugby leagues.
Tarbes won the French championship back in 1973, but they’re now at the bottom of the Nationale 1.
Pau are flying high, second in the Top 14 and playing some cracking stuff.
This part of the country is jammed with respected rugby clubs, many of whom can hark back to better days but remain pillars of their communities in the towns and villages of southwestern France. Rugby is king in these parts.
We even stopped in Lourdes along the way, although the Leinster fans onboard weren’t feeling the need to say a prayer. They’ll be hoping to see their team grab the bonus-point win that could see them secure top seeding for the Champions Cup knock-outs.
Standing in their way today will be a proud Bayonne team looking to defend their home of Stade Jean-Dauger.
This is a club – L‘Aviron bayonnais rugby pro, to give them their official title – who epitomise l’esprit de clocher, which translates literally as ‘the spirit of the bell tower’ but really means parochialism.
The fierce pride with which French rugby teams play at home is well known, but Bayonne have been leaders in recent times.
They were promoted into the Top 14 for the 2022/23 season and built towards last season’s remarkable achievement of reaching the semi-finals, having beaten Clermont in the barrages clash they earned with a fourth-placed finish in the regular season.
To be fair, AB’s barrages win wasn’t a shock simply because they had been so brilliant at home.
They won all 13 of their 13 home games in the Top 14 last season. No one else had that perfect record.
This season, the Basque club are seven from seven at home so far. That success at the Jean Dauger has been important because they’ve won just once on the road.
It should be noted that Bayonne have lost at home this season but only in the Champions Cup, with an in-form Stormers side winning 26-17 when they visited last month. That one hurt L’Aviron.
As Leinster and their fans will understand today, Bayonne’s fans generate a cracking atmosphere at Stade Jean Dauger, which has a capacity of 14,500, with plans to expand in the next few years. It’s named after a legendary Bayonne player who was part of their championship-winning team in 1943, the last time the club were the kings of France.
Leo Cullen already knows what to expect, having done a recce in November. The Leinster boss took a trip with his son and his father to check out Bayonne. AB hammered Montauban that day, which most sides have done, but they’ve also beaten all the big dogs. The Top 14 often sees clubs rotate for away games but AB’s record is still formidable.
Ireland played Samoa here in their 2023 World Cup warm-up game and that one was loud despite the absence of the home club. The locals quickly took to the underdog Samoans and gave the Irish players more than a few booings.
Ireland have bad memories at the Jean-Dauger. The Battle of Bayonne before the 2007 World Cup left Brian O’Driscoll with a broken sinus after one sucker punch. Bayonne’s approach to the game was filthy.
They don’t usually go that far, but Bayonne bring an edge on home soil. The pre-match buzz tends to whip them into a frenzy.
The pre-match showpiece is the club song, La Peña Baiona.
If you’ve never watched Bayonne or heard the song, you might recognise it from its adoption by the massive crowds at Stade de France during the 2023 World Cup. The French fans boomed it out at half-time of those games, and it sometimes pops up during international games. It even featured in the opening ceremony of that tournament.
It’s certainly up there as one of the greatest rugby songs in the world and while the lyrics are fairly straightforward, even a little trifling, it’s an absolute tour de force when the locals are belting it out passionately. There are genuinely people from other parts of France who support Bayonne because of La Peña Baiona.
This special town is about much more than rugby but even its other great attraction, the annual Fêtes de Bayonne, was started in the 1930s by a group of friends from l’Aviron bayonnais who had been to festivals in the Basque city of Pamplona in northern Spain.
They wanted their own version and so, the Fêtes de Bayonne lasts for five days every summer, with a festival of music, dancing, fireworks, and street performing. Decked out in white with red bandanas, the crowds in Bayonne for those occasions are remarkable. And, of course, they roar out La Peña Baiona on the opening night of the festival.
The rugby club wear light blue and white, but they attract support of a similarly buoyant timbre.
Whatever the outcome on the pitch at Stade Jean-Dauger today, this is a trip that any Leinster fans lucky enough to be here will have fond memories of.
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Aviron Bayonnais Bayonne La Peña Baiona Top 14