Ronan O'Gara's relief as La Rochelle eye Toulouse revenge: 'We've woken up now'

Ronan O'Gara at Stade Mayol in Toulon, on Saturday. La Rochelle now face Toulouse next Friday in Bordeaux.

It’s something of a Ronan O’Gara mantra: form matters only at the business end of the season – a point his La Rochelle side proved at Stade Mayol as they beat Toulon 34-29 to book a semi-final berth in Bordeaux on Friday, against their nemesis, Toulouse.

By La Rochelle’s standards, they have had a bang average Top 14 campaign, only going ahead on the win-loss ledger on the final weekend of the regular season to finish – courtesy of 12 bonus points – fifth in the table, three points behind their opponents in the barrage round of the post-season play-offs.

They head to the Matmut Atlantique on Friday, however, unbeaten in their last four, to face a well-rested Toulouse side – a number of players have not played a Top 14 match in a month – fresh from a week’s training camp in Portugal.

“We’ve woken up now,” O’Gara said. “This performance will do us a lot of good, but it should be fairly routine by the standards we set at this club. Our normal now is to be in the fight for the Champions Cup and the Brennus.

“I’m happy for the players because it’s been a difficult week. On Tuesday we hit breaking point. I told them I didn’t like their attitude in training. It felt like we were back at the first day of the season. 

“I respect them so much, because after just one good practice, they were able to play like that.” Certainly no-one watching at Stade Mayol would have been aware of the midweek problems, as La Rochelle combined big-wall defence, with incisive attack – and raging indiscipline.

The scale of the win was greater than the final scoreline suggests. O’Gara kept faith in the same battle-hardened starting XV that beat Racing 92 last Saturday, while Toulon boss Pierre Mignoni made 10 changes to his starting line-up after resting key players for their regular season final-round trip to Stade Francais.

First-half tries from Antoine Hastoy – in one of his best performances of the season – Dillyn Leyds and Jules Favre gave La Rochelle a 24-15 first-half lead, despite a penalty count that gave Melvyn Jaminet plenty of opportunity to test the accuracy of his intercontinental ballistic boot. His accuracy was pinpoint.

As attack coach Sébastien Boboul, said midway through the first-half: “We have to avoid this indiscipline. Toulon are making it difficult, but … we can't get away with such behaviour.” 

Hastoy scored the game’s first try after nine minutes, darting through a wide hole in Toulon’s defence after a five metre scrum.

The second, from Leyds, owed more to opportunism. The ball found its way to Jack Nowell following a turnover in La Rochelle territory. His smart, bounding kick ahead turned into a perfect 50:22, but only because the former Exeter player chased down his wing and took the throw-in quickly. Oscar Jegou offloaded to Hastoy, who flicked the ball to Leyds.

Another Jaminet penalty – rocket-launched from well over 50m – cut the deficit to two points. But Jules Favre then burst through from short range following another Hastoy break to extend La Rochelle’s lead again just before halftime.

And when Jegou won the battle for the rebound after Hastoy had fired a penalty against the upright early in the second period, the game was all over bar the shouting, despite yellow cards for Will Skelton, in the 65th minute, and for Judicael Cancoriet in the 71st.

By then, any comeback was destined to come up short. La Rochelle, the best defensive side in the Top 14 this season, had kept Toulon at arm’s length through the second half. The penalty try that accompanied Cancoriet’s yellow, and England hooker Jack Singleton’s after-the-hooter score, his farewell action for Toulon, were nothing more than score-flattering consolations.

Even on the post-match press round, his focus was already shifting to next Friday in Bordeaux. 

“I have a lot of respect for Toulouse, but we were better than them in last season’s final for 78 minutes... We’ve had a tough time this season, but we’ve always stuck together. We have a great past, but what interests me is the future.”