A Canelé is a small pastry flavoured with rum and vanilla, having a soft and tender custard centre and a dark thick caramelised crust. It is a speciality of the Bordeaux region.

Legend has it that the local nuns of the 16th century Annonciade Couvent in Bordeaux used to collect the egg yolks from the wine makers who had used the egg whites to clarify the wine and before adding extra vanilla, rum and sugar shipped back from the Caribbean, together with flour and milk. 

The pastry takes its name from the fluted copper mould in which it is still baked today.

Whether this Aquitaine speciality is as tasty and mouthwatering as the UBB backline is up for debate.

Rum and Vanillia or Bielle-Biarrey and Penaud ? All four Ingredients are guaranteed to satisfy the most discerning of pallets and leave you with a beautiful lingering aftertaste.

On the other hand, if you prefer something a bit more substantial, or dare I say stodgy, then a 140 kg portion of Tongan Ben Tameifuna will also be on the menu.

The club was founded in 2006 when two Bordeaux clubs merged, Stade Bordelais and Club Athlétique Bordeaux-Begles.

The club competed in the ProD2 until gaining promotion to the Top 14 in 2011.

They have not won a trophy under their current guise and having reached the Top 14 final last year whilst playing some wonderful rugby on the way, they were thumped 59-3 by Stade Toulousain in Marseille.

To say they are anxious to bury those ghosts would be an understatement, and Cardiff 2025 would be a perfect setting for them to do so.

They currently lie in second place in the Top 14 table behind Toulouse and are all but guaranteed a semi-final place, so their oefs are definitely not all in one basket.

Yesterday, UBB and Saints both decided against wrapping their players up in cotton and put out their strongest sides in their respective domestic league matches.

Whilst Bordeaux have a clean bill of health and the luxury of taking off Jalibert, Lucu, Poirot, Tatafu and Van Rensburg after 53 minutes, Northampton Saints have injury concerns over hooker Curtis Lang, full-back James Ramm, Temo Mayavanua, and Alex Coles was limping at the end of their last second 28-24 victory over Saracens. Plus, they are already without Furbank, Sleightholme, and Augustus.

But can Bordeaux do it against a Northampton Saints team will still have the roaring Lions that ran Leinster ragged in Dublin ? Well, the proof of the pudding as they say is in the eating.

Bon appétit