O'Gara and La Rochelle limp towards Munster as Clermont inflict seventh defeat in eight
THINKING TIME: Ronan O'Gara's team are in wretched form. Pic: PA Wire
There was no confidence-boosting victory for Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle to count on as they head into next Saturday’s Champions Cup round-of-16 match against Munster at Stade Marcel Deflandre on the back of a 33-19 loss at Clermont – their seventh defeat in their last eight outings.
Both sides were desperately seeking a morale-raising win. Like O’Gara’s Rochelais, Christophe Urios’s Clermontois had not won a Top 14 match since January 4. Unlike the Rochelais, they at least had a Champions Cup pool-phase win – against Bristol – to look back on since the turn of the year.
The visitors led 14-6 after 25 minutes, courtesy of tries from veteran Teddy Thomas and rising star Hoani Bosmorin. But indiscipline kept Clermont in the game in the first half hour, before they scored four times in a 25-minute spell either side of half-time – a period that included the 10-minute spell when Levani Botia was in the sin bin.
George Moala, starting for the first time since December, scored twice with young hooker Barnabe Massa and winger Alivereti Raka joining him on the scoresheet.
It’s not as if La Rochelle didn’t have their chances. Quite the opposite. A long pass drifted forward and a tiny knock on denied them two second-half tries.
The Rochelais’ backs coach Rémi Talès said: “We paid dearly for our errors. We also gave them the opportunity to play to their strengths.
“We’ll keep working to try to regain confidence. We haven’t won since January 4th – it’s a long time… We can only keep our mouths shut and show our fans what we’re capable of.”
Despite their eight-match winless streak, 10th-placed La Rochelle are just four points adrift of Clermont, in sixth – the last of the places for the race to the Bouclier de Brennus. They’re also just eight points above 13th-placed Perpignan.
“We’re looking both ways – up and down,” Tales admitted. “But we don’t really talk about the rankings. Everything can change, we have to win back and get out of this cycle.”
They will have to rediscover winning ways quickly. There are six matches left in the Top 14’s regular season. La Rochelle face high-flyers Bayonne and Bordeaux, survival dogfighters Vannes and Perpignan, and play-off chasers Montpellier and Pau.
Ma’a Nonu became the oldest player ever to feature in a Top 14 match when – at the age of 42 years, 10 months and eight days, and some four years after he last played in the French top flight – he replaced Toulon team-mate Gabin Villiere at Castres, with just over 20 minutes to play.
He was involved in two Toulon tries, as they came close to overtaking second-placed Bordeaux – but Castres edged it 28-26 to strengthen their claim to a play-off place. They’re fifth, four points in front of Clermont.
Paul Gustard’s Stade Francais seemed on the road to a third victory in as many games, as they led 29-3 at Montpellier after 45 minutes.
But they lost the last 35 minutes 35-3, in what Gustard – persuaded this week to see out the final year of his contract by club owner Hans-Peter Wild – described as, “the worst second half I've ever seen from a team I coach,” to head back to Paris on the wrong end of a 38-32 scoreline.
Another match – between bottom-of-the-table Vannes and 13th-placed Perpignan – also went to the wire. Italian international Tomasso Allan landed an after-the-hooter penalty to earn the Catalans a 20-20 draw at Stade de la Rabine and halt a run of three defeats in a row.
Last Sunday, a heavily rotated Toulouse, with all of their Six Nations internationals given the weekend off, failed to pick up a league point for the first time this season as they lost 32-24 at Bordeaux.
This week, against Pau at Stade Ernest Wallon, they picked up the full five as Ugo Mola arranged a graduated return to club action for almost all his stars ahead of next weekend’s Champions Cup game against Sale. Ange Capuozzo – starting on the wing and finishing at scrum-half – scored three of their eight tries as they won 55-10.
Bayonne’s charge to the play-offs continued as they consolidated fourth place with a bonus-point 28-14 win over Lyon at fortress Jean Dauger. The Basque side are unbeaten at home this season.
Racing 92, hovering just above the relegation places, and Bordeaux – six points behind Toulouse at the top of the table – round out the 20th weekend on Sunday night at La Defense Arena.
