Ronan O'Gara's influence evident as La Rochelle clinically close out victory over Gloucester

When the game needed to be closed down by the visitors you saw the O’Gara influence as his team began to play territory, kick their penalties, and put the squeeze on the home side

Fri, 02 Apr, 2021 - 22:14

Rob Cole

GLOUCESTER 16 LA ROCHELLE 27

Ronan O’Gara has history with Gloucester in Europe, but the La Rochelle head coach didn’t have to summon up any miracles this time to see off the cherry and whites.

The former Munster man had to dig deep to get past Gloucester in Limerick back in 2003 to get his side into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. This time his side largely bossed the game to earn a home quarter-final clash with either the Scarlets or Sale Sharks.

His team of many talents, honed not only by himself, but also by director of rugby Jonno Gibbes, formerly a tournament winner with Leinster, showcased some of their skills in the first-half to lead 15-13, but then showed a different side to their game after the break.

Discipline and structure are not qualities you normally associate with French teams, but when the game needed to be closed down by the visitors you saw the O’Gara influence as his team began to play territory, kick their penalties, and put the squeeze on the home side, closing it out four penalties to one in the second half.

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara. Photo by Matt Impey/Sportsfile

The formbook certainly pointed to a La Rochelle win, as did the team lists, but Gloucester certainly had history on their side with seven wins out of nine in their previous meetings, although all in the European Challenge Cup. The last time they met was in France when the west country upset the odds with a famous semi-final victory in 2014.

But this time they were facing the meanest defensive team in the Top14 and a side sitting second in the table on their side of the channel. Add to that the fact the home side lost Wales wonder wing Louis Rees-Zammit to a hamstring injury in the warm-up and the omens weren’t good for Gloucester.

But anything can happen in a knock-out game and it only took one slapdash reception from the kick-off to gift Gloucester the first attacking opportunity. Within two minutes of the start, they were three points to the good thanks to a George Barton penalty.

If it was a bright start for the home side, the rest of the half was a question of whether or not they could contain La Rochelle. The speed of their rucks was off the scale and they conjured two tries and had a third ruled out after a TMO review that spotted an accidental offside at a ruck earlier in the move.

The giant Aussie lock Will Skelton moved around the field as part wrecking ball and part basketball playmaker and Victor Vito at No. 8, along with his Kiwi colleagues at half-back, Tamera Kerr-Barlow and Ihaia West, ran the show.

The result was an eighth-minute try for the visitors from their South African full-back Dillyn Leyds, courtesy of a delicious Skelton offload and a charge into the 22 by the explosive Kevin Gourdon. Barton and West then swapped penalties before the French wing Arthur Retiere finished superbly in the right corner and West added a touchline conversion.

It seemed to be plain sailing for La Rochelle at that stage until they let Gloucester back into the game. Barton kicked a penalty into the 22 and wing Jules Favre lept high to keep it in play.

All he managed to do was knock it back into the path of Chris Harris and moments later No. 8 Ruan Ackermann was powering over from close range for a try that Barton converted to cut the gap to two points.

It stayed that way after Levani Botia’s try was ruled out by the TMO and so the game was still very much in the melting pot at the break.

Scorers: Gloucester: Try: R Ackermann; Con: G Barton; Pens: G Barton 3. La Rochelle: Try: D Lynds, A Retiere; Con: I West; Pens: I West 4, J Plisson.

Gloucester: S Carreras; C Sharples (B Twelvetrees 46), C Harris, M Atkinson, J May; G Barton, W Heinz (C Chapman 59); V Rapava Ruskin (A Seville 58), H Walker (S Socino 58), F Balmain (J Ford-Robinson 58), E Slater, M Alemanno (A Craig 58), J Reid (F Clarke 37), L Ludlow (c), R Ackermann (J Clement 69).

YC: l Ludlow 47.

La Rochelle: D Leyds (J Plisson 59); A Retiere, R Rhule (T Berjon 66), L Botia, J Favre (G Doumayrou 48); I West, T Kerr Barlow; D Priso (R Wardi 48), F Bosch (P Bourgarit 48), A Joly (U Atonio 48), R Sazy (c) (T Lavault 66), W Skelton, W Liebenberg (G Alldritt 58), K Gourdon, V Vito.

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland).