Injuries hit Saints again as they suffer defeat in Champions Cup final

The black, green and gold had flown out of the blocks with an Alex Coles try inside the opening couple of minutes, but they immediately lost James Ramm as he had to be helped from the field.

The next huge blow came quickly after as George Furbank was caught by a stray knee of an onrushing UBB player, forcing him to be stretchered from the field.

Saints also lost Temo Mayanavanua before the break as he failed a head injury assessment after being caught high by Mahamadou Diaby, who was shown a yellow card.

And in a season that has seen Saints blighted by injuries, it always looked like a huge task, having lost so many players during the first period.

Still, the black, green and gold kept battling, and Coles' second try of the match just before the break helped his side to go in level, despite the fact they had lost Tommy Freeman to a yellow card.

Saints looked to have gone ahead early in the second period, but Henry Pollock's effort was ruled out, and UBB pushed on to just about take the game away from their spirited opponents.

It was a second heartbreaking Cardiff final in 14 years for Saints, who were beaten 33-22 by Leinster at the Principality Stadium back in 2011.

On that occasion, the black, green and gold had failed to score a single point during the second period, and it happened again here.

But they couldn't have given any more than they did against a UBB side who had finished the pool stages as the top seed and who won all of their matches on the way to the title.

Saints had hoped to produce another sensational showing like the one they delivered in Dublin in the semi-finals, and they looked strong early on as UBB struggled to retain possession, opening the door for a huge early black, green and gold surge.

Eventually the ball came to Coles and he finished from close range.

Fin Smith converted, but Saints suffered a big early blow as Ramm had to be helped from the field, bringing Ollie Sleightholme into the action inside the opening three minutes.

There was another nightmare moment soon after as Furbank went up to gather a Maxime Lucu crossfield kick, landed on the ground and was then caught by a stray knee from an onrushing opponent.

Furbank was down for a long time, receiving a huge amount of medical treatment before he was eventually stretchered from the field.

UBB had a penalty coming from an earlier incident, allowing them to level the scores as the ball was sent wide to the right for Damian Penaud to score.

Matthieu Jalibert missed the conversion but he made amends in style, producing an incredible piece of play in the Saints 22, bamboozling the black, green and gold before sending Adam Coleman over on the right.

Jalibert converted this time and the size of Saints' task was becoming increasingly clear.

Fin Smith responded with a long-range penalty to cut the gap to two points but UBB were immediately back at the Saints door, winning a turnover close to the line, allowing Jalibert to notch a penalty that restored the five-point advantage.

UBB were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Diaby was sin-binned for a shoulder to the head tackle on Temo Mayanavanua.

The referee decided against a red card as he claimed Diaby was 'passive' in the tackle, but Mayanavanua had to go off for a HIA due to the collision.

Saints immediately tried to apply the pressure, but eventually they opted to take the points after earning a couple of penalties in the 22.

UBB again came straight back at them though, and after Bialle-Biarrey's kick ahead took a wicked bounce, Freeman was forced to take his man out in the air, resulting in a yellow card.

UBB took immediate advantage, with a tidy offload finding Penaud, who charged over for his second try of the game on the right.

Jalibert missed the conversion to leave the gap at seven, and Saints responded on the brink of half-time.

The black, green and gold pieced together an incredible move that saw Fraser Dingwall and Sleightholme work together to send Coles over.

Smith slotted the conversion superbly to somehow send Saints in level at the end of a first half in which they had been struck with so many blows.

Saints thought they had started the second half in the flying fashion they began the first, but Pollock's effort was chalked off for a pull off the ball on Ben Tameifuna.

Things took another turn for the worse soon after as Ed Prowse was yellow carded for a high tackle on Yoram Moefana.

Maxime Lucu slotted the penalty and Saints were down to 13 men as what looked like a dream start to the second half quickly turned into a nightmare.

UBB were starting to go for the jugular again and they thought they had scored from a lineout drive, but the TMO spotted a loss of control while grounding the ball and it was no try.

The French side kept coming and Saints had to stand tall to another lineout drive soon after.

But eventually the 14-men had their resistance broken as Cyril Cazeaux powered over after his side had mounted an attack down the left, though the score could easily have been ruled out as it appeared there had been a forward pass in the build-up.

Lucu missed the conversion but there was now a huge mountain to climb for Saints, despite the fact they had finally been restored to 15 men in the moments after the try.

UBB were relentless in their attack, piling the pressure on time after time as their scrum helped move them up the field.

The noise from the French fans was growing ever louder and Saints were under siege.

Penalty after penalty was going the way of UBB and Saints had to do some huge defensive work to resist on their own line once again.

Saints had their chances to attack soon after, but UBB held out in front of their own posts as the black, green and gold attacking game failed to function.

The officials were struggling to make calls and stick to them, with the match pretty much being refereed on review as the TMO was continually in use.

Saints were being penned in again as the final 10 minutes continued to ebb away, with UBB sensing the job was close to complete.

And ultimately there was just no way back for the brave men from Northampton as UBB held the tiring team at arm’s length to finish their mission of becoming champions of Europe for the first time in their history.

Saints: 15. George Furbank (Tom Litchfield 5 (Tom James 78)); 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Fraser Dingwall (c), 12. Rory Hutchinson, 11. James Ramm (Ollie Sleightholme 3); 10. Fin Smith, 9. Alex Mitchell; 1. Manny Iyogun (Tarek Haffar 66), 2. Curtis Langdon (Craig Wright 61), 3. Trevor Davison (Elliot Millar Mills 60); 4. Temo Mayanavanua (Ed Prowse 31), 5. Tom Lockett (Angus Scott-Young 61); 6. Alex Coles, 7. Josh Kemeny, 8. Henry Pollock.

Union Bordeaux-Bègles: 15. Romain Buros (Arthur Retiere 21); 14. Damian Penaud, 13. Nicolas Depoortere, 12. Yoram Moefana (Rohan Janse van Rensburg 73), 11. Louis Bielle-Biarrey; 10. Matthieu Jalibert, 9. Maxime Lucu (c); 1. Jefferson Poirot (Ugo Boniface 59), 2. Maxime Lamothe (Connor Sa 63), 3. Sipili Falatea (Ben Tameifuna 40); 4. Adam Coleman (Pierre Bochaton 51), 5. Cyril Cazeaux; 6. Mahamadou Diaby (Marko Gazzotti 40), 7. Guido Petti, 8. Pete Samu (Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer 68). Referee: Nika Amashukeli