Twelve months ago, Salesi Rayasi was running out for Vannes in the French Pro D2, the second tier of French club rugby. On Saturday evening in Bilbao, the former Wallabies wing stood in front of a wall of Bordeaux celebrations with a Champions Cup winner's medal around his neck.
Bordeaux-Begles had just dismantled Leinster 41-19 to retain the Investec Champions Cup. Rayasi, who scored two hat-tricks on the road to the final, was one of the few non-French faces in the matchday squad — but his Australian-Fijian story has become a quiet undercurrent in Bordeaux's juggernaut season.
"The noise is unbelievable," Rayasi told Premier Sports as he walked from the field. "These fans, c'est unbelievable. And outstanding, these guys — yeah, outstanding. Thank you."
The journey, as the Premier Sports presenter framed it to him, has been remarkable. Two hat-tricks during the knockout rounds, a starting role for one of the great club teams in modern European rugby, and a Champions Cup medal won in the city he now calls home — all twelve months removed from Pro D2.
"Top 14 — Vannes just got promoted, sorry," Rayasi corrected with a smile, before reflecting on the leap.
"It was awesome. The change in quality of players here with Jelly and Maxime Lucu, all the French players that play for the team — it's been awesome just to rub shoulders, and I got to learn and at the same time enjoy my footy."
That last phrase — enjoying his footy — is the line Rayasi has come back to all season. Bordeaux's offload-heavy, chaos-leaning attack rewards instinctive wingers in a way that few systems in world rugby do, and the 28-year-old has thrived inside it. Around him, the names that defined Saturday's final read like a French rugby greatest hits: Matthieu Jalibert at fly-half, Maxime Lucu at scrum-half, Damian Penaud at outside centre, Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the opposite wing, Yoram Moefana inside.
Asked what made the group so special — what was the feeling inside a team that suddenly looks beyond touch in European rugby — Rayasi paused.
"I'm not too sure. I think we're really close. We all — I mean, everyone here in the team, from 1 to 40, whatever it is, even the academy boys — we all joke around and banter with each other. It's fair play. So I guess I'd probably have to use that as the gauge as to why we're on fire."
Then came the rugby answer.
"The pace of it — when we come out here on the field, the guys are in sync. We know our strengths and we play to our strengths. We're enjoying our footy."
The hometown factor mattered, too. San Mames Stadium sits in the heart of the Basque Country, just up the coast from Bordeaux's southwestern French base, and the crossover crowd brought a club-final atmosphere that lifted the side from the warm-up.
"The support here coming down to Bilbao, the Basque region, it's awesome for the boys," Rayasi said. "Some of the boys are coming from the region itself. So I mean, on home turf as well — and I guess the support as well, just to top it off. It's unreal."
Bordeaux now have a Top 14 playoff push to navigate from fifth place, with a knockout fixture against Clermont next weekend that English-language podcast Eggchasers Rugby suggested may be "a tougher battle than they had against Leinster." Rayasi, freshly minted as a back-to-back European champion in his second top-flight season since promotion, will not be short of opportunity.
From Pro D2 to back-to-back Champions Cup winner inside twelve months. For an Australian wing who once feared his European chapter had stalled, the Bordeaux story is one of the best in world rugby.
