Alexandre Péclier’s penalty three minutes into injury time gave the home side the points and broke Leinster hearts after they cam within seconds of recording a win in one of the hardest venues to play at in Europe.

Leinster outside half Felippe Contempomi, who scored 16 points in a stand out performance saw his 58-metre shot at goal deep in extra time fall short, and the home fans celebrated a famous victory.

But Bourgoin – thanks to defeats to Bath in Round 2 and Leinster last weekend – cannot make it to the final eight, and have regained some pride after their heavy defeat in Round 3

Bourgoin wing David Janin got the game going with a terrific solo try after just seven minutes, producing a textbook chip over his opposite number and catch to dive into the corner. Péclier converted, but missed a penalty from a similar position three minutes later.

Contempomi register his first points with a penalty soon after  but his success was quickly cancelled out by Benjamin Boyet, who landed a drop goal after his forwards had marched the ball 30m back from the restart.

Contempomi and Péclier were sent to the bin for fighting on the half-hour as the tensions mounted, and the open spaces in the back-line was exploited by Leinster.

Gordon D’Arcy ploughed through a gap to go under the posts and give wing Robert Kearney an easy conversion in Contempomi’s absence.

Then Contempomi briefly put Leinster in the lead with another penalty in first-half injury time, but with the final play of the half, Bourgoin prop Pascal Peyron managed to tap a quick penalty and go under the posts himself. Péclier converted, and the teams trooped off to the dressing rooms to rapturous applause, with Bourgoin leading 17-13.

Within a minute of the restart, Leinster’s Eric Miller found himself in the bin, after a deliberate knock-on which almost certainly cost Bourgoin a try. Péclier converted the penalty, and Bourgoin got their just desserts three minutes later when David Venditti intercepted a loose D’Arcy pass and cruised through for a seven-pointer, making the score 27-13.

Then began one of the most rousing fightbacks the tournament has witnessed.

First Bourgoin’s Jean-François Coux was binned for a high tackle on D’Arcy – which could also have been punished with a penalty try.
But within three minutes Leinster had got their rewards anyway, after Contempomi slipped through some tackles and over in the right corner. He missed his conversion – a crucial miss, as it turned out.

The Leinstermen were enjoying a ten-minute spell of dream rugby. They took the restart, crunched, dodged and offloaded their way back upfield, and then Kearney popped up on the end of another Contempomi-sparked back-line move to score close to the posts. This conversion Contempomi landed, and it was 27-25.

Bourgoin simply could not do anything to stop the Leinster flow, and on the hour-mark, Contempomi gave the visitors the lead for the second time with a long-range penalty after an offside. Coux returned immediately after the kick – Leinster had scored 17 points in his absence.

Leinster began then to show signs of tiredness, and Bourgoin began to play again. After a blind-side move, Janin managed to squeeze over in the corner, and the noise of the crowd was so loud that many did not notice that referee Tony Spreadbury had signalled for a video replay.
Janin was adjudged in touch when he touched the ball down – it was also debatable whether he had control of the ball anyway, but Bourgoin were by now setting up camp in the Leinster half.

Boyet saw another drop goal attempt go wide as the game entered the final ten minutes, but his kicks kept Leinster pinned in their own 22 as the snow once again began to fall.

As the game entered injury time, the Bourgoin pack produced a moment of magic, with Wessel Jooste picking up off the back of a scrum and then driving and being driven to ten metres out, where a Leinster forward was adjudged to have collapsed the maul.
Péclier lined up the kick, and landed it to a the delight of the home fans.