The actual land border between England and Wales is an unmarked irregular 160 mile boundary that runs from the Dee Estuary in the north down to the Severn Estuary in the south.
If you are travelling west from the city of Gloucester you will hit the border at the Wye Valley and the town of Chepstow.
That border has seen a fair bit of sporting footfall crossing its demarcation zone in recent times as Gloucester is starting to become something of a Welsh rugby enclave.
Wales captain Dewi Lake joined from Ospreys whist national co-Captain Jac Morgan accompanied him.
Fellow Welshmen Max Llewellyn, Josh Hathaway, Freddie Thomas and Deian Gwynne were already at Gloucester setting up base camp.
The Cymric contingent would have been even larger had Wales and Lions scrum-half Tomos Williams not left the club for Saracens in the summer.
Last night the Cherry and whites were sampling some Bordeaux vintage sadly it was not the grape variety. The only claret on show came from the cuts and bruises in an epic to and from contest that ended in a 36-36,
Whilst the rugby world has spent the last few years trying to stop Louis Bielle-Biarrrey Border Force officials managed it at Bristol Airport all that was needed apparently was some immigration governmental red tape even Rassie Erasmus hadn’t come up with that one.
The contest at Kingsholm was enthralling. Bordeaux scored a try through Page-Relo after just four minutes, but Gloucester responded with two of their own via Arthur Clark and Max Llewellyn.
Gloucester’s dominant scrum gave them the platform to get to half-time with a 24-17 lead much to the delight of the donkey impressionists in the shed.
Two Bordeaux tries in the opening ten minutes of the second half from Uberti and Bielle-Biarrey allowed the visitors to take a 29-14 lead.
Enter super sub Will Trenholm for Gloucester entering the fray in the 55th minutes he scored two tries in four minutes to regain the lead 36-29.
But Bielle-Biarrey playing in his 100th game for Bordeaux, and having side stepped Border Force at Bristol,had the final say scoring a try in the 62nd minute converted by Maxime Lucu to bring the scores level at 36-36.
In the remaining seventeen minutes both teams searched desperately for the winning score but it was not to be, and a fantastic opening to the 2027/27 Investec Champions Cup competition ended with honours even.
Good luck getting home Monsieur Bielle-Biarrey.
Photo courtesy Gloucester Rugby
