Philadelphia Independent - Penaud recovers from injury to start Champions Cup final

Penaud has been sidelined since the semi-final victory over Toulouse earlier this month with an ankle injury.

The 28-year-old has scored 21 tries this season for club and country and forms a lethal partnership with fellow winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey.

Head coach Yannick Bru has made six other changes to his team from last weekend's Top 14 win over Castres including naming Tonga heavyweight prop Ben Tameifuna on the bench.

For Northampton, England winger Ollie Sleightholme is among the substitutes having been out since March with an ankle injury.

Director of rugby Phil Dowson has named winger James Ramm, flanker Alex Coles, lock Temo Mayanavanua and hooker Curtis Langdon in the starting XV.

The quartet all suffered injuries in last Saturday's Premiership win over Saracens.

Teams:

Northampton: George Furbank; Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall (capt), Rory Hutchinson, James Ramm; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Henry Pollock, Josh Kemeny, Alex Coles; Tom Lockett, Temo Mayanavanua; Trevor Davison, Curtis Langdon, Emmanuel Iyogun

Replacements: Craig Wright, Tarek Haffar, Elliot Millar-Mills, Ed Prowse, Angus Scott-Young, Tom James, Tom Litchfield, Ollie Sleightholme

Coach: Phil Dowson (ENG)

Bordeaux-Begles: Romain Buros; Damian Penaud, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana; Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lucu (capt), Pete Samu, Guido Petti, Mahamadou Diaby, Cyril Cazeaux, Adam Coleman; Sipili Falatea, Maxime Lamothe, Jefferson Poirot

Replacements: Connor Sa, Ugo Boniface, Ben Tameifuna, Pierre Bochaton, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Marko Gazzotti, Arthur Retiere, Rohan Janse van Rensburg

Coach: Yannick Bru (FRA)

Referee: Nika Amashukeli (GEO)

R.Robinson--PI