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'Lucky' Lamothe hat-trick guides Bordeaux-Begles into Top 14 final
Hooker Maxime Lamothe said he was lucky "after" scoring a historic hat-trick as Bordeaux-Begles beat Toulon 39-24 on Saturday to set-up a repeat of last season's French Top 14 final.
Lamothe became the first player to score three tries in a Top 14 knock-out game which helped clinch a place in next Saturday's decider in Paris against holders and record 23-time champions Toulouse.
Bordeaux-Begles will now eye a double after winning the Champions Cup a month ago and they will also seek revenge for being hammered 59-3 in last year's domestic final.
"The hat-trick is a anecdotal more than anything, I'm lucky, thanks to all my team-mate who did all the work" Lamothe told French broadaster Canal+.
"We're where we want to be, now it's up to us to do the job," he added.
New Zealand centre Leicester Fainga'anuku, Fiji winger Setariki Tuicuvu and Georgia prop Beka Gigashvili were Toulon's try-scorers in their first French semi-final since 2017.
Toulouse reached their 31st French final by holding off Bayonne 32-25 on Friday.
Bordeaux-Begles, who finished second behind Toulouse in the table, were without winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey due to concussion but the 22-year-old said before the game he hoped to be fit if they reached next weekend's showdown in Paris.
Toulon were captained by former England lock Dave Ribbans with influential Baptiste Serin at scrum-half for the four-time French champions.
By the half-hour mark Bordeaux-Begles looked like they were in control and led 15-3 after centre Nicolas Depoortere and Lamothe crossed thanks to assists from scrum-half Maxime Lucu.
But on the stroke of half-time, Toulon cut the gap to five points as Fainga'anuku powered on his last club appearance before returning to New Zealand with the Crusaders.
After the break, Lamothe claimed his second touchdown before Toulon lock Matthias Halagahu was yellow carded, dealing a hammer blow to Toulon's hopes of reaching a first final in eight years.
During Halagahu's absence, Bordeaux-Begles scored twice as winger Damian Penaud slalomed over from a Matthieu Jalibert kick assist and 26-year-old Lamothe claimed the first hat-trick of his senior career.
Tuicuvu and Gigashvili claimed consolation efforts in the final quarter as Bordeaux-Begles were able to make replacements including fly-half Jalibert earlier than planned with next weekend's final in mind.
On a positive note for Toulon's French players, defeat means they have more of a chance of being named in France's squad for the July Test series with New Zealand.
Les Bleus head coach Fabien Galthie is allowed to pick a maximum of five players from next weekend's final in his 42-man set-up for the three games with the All Blacks with the opening match on July 5.
L.Zielinski--GL
