Borders coach Steve Bates was pleased for his players brave performance, but disappointed as they came within a few minutes of a historic draw.
Borders, bottom of the Magners League, have never won an away Heineken Cup match and were drawing 17-all with the French champions before Sereli Bobo scored two late tries to seal the win and take a bonus point in their five-try win.
But it was a brave performance from the Scots as they fought back from 17-3 down at half-time to level the game through tries by Calum McRae and Opeta Palepoi.

“It was a brave performance,” said Bates.

“We are obviously disappointed, but it was a superb display, especially after last week’s heavy defeat and it gives us something to take back into the Magners League campaign.

“There were several stand out performances, the pack was outstanding and were much better than last week at the set-pieces.”

Borders have just two wins all season – and they have never won in Europe – while Biarritz rarely lose at home, so a Scottish upset was hardly on the cards – especially after they lost 25-0 to the French at Netherdale the previous weekend.

And so it proved when French fly-half Damien Traille made good use of his pack’s early pressure to dart over on 17 minutes for Biarritz’s first try.

Then hooker Benjamin Noirot celebrated his 26th birthday with a try after his pack drove him over from a close-range line-out.

And the French side went into half-time coasting at 17-3 after replacement right wing Philippe Bidabe dived over in the corner.
Borders’ had little to smile about following an error-strewn first-half, but their full-back Calum McRae kept them in touch with a penalty in injury time at the end of the first-half.

France flanker Serge Betsen and Scot Andy Miller were sin-binned for fighting early in the second half and Biarritz’s replacement prop Denis Avril was shown a yellow-card after 50 minutes for persistent off-side and Borders capitalised when Samoan lock Opeta Palepoi crashed over from a line-out.

McRae landed the conversion to put the Borders back in contention at 17-10 and the Scots drew level thank to a bizarre try.
From a French turn-over deep inside Borders territory, replacement hooker Ross Ford charged up field before McRae sprinted half the length of the field past seemingly disinterested defenders.

McRae converted his own try and Borders were to come within a minute of picking up a draw, as Biarritz battered their line.

The pressure finally told when Scottish international Stuart Grimes was sin-binned for persistent infringing and replacement scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili spotted Sereli Bobo unmarked and launched a cross-field kick which fell into the Fijian’s grateful arms.

The fourth try wrapped up the bonus point and in injury-time a simple pass saw Bobo poach his second try in three minutes to put the win beyond doubt.