Top 14 Drilldown: Ronan O'Gara's hybrid style starts to flow, Toulouse find perfection

All the weekend's talking points in French rugby
La Rochelle's Pierre Bourgarit (R) breaks away during the French Top 14 rugby union match between La Rochelle and Toulon at the Marcel Deflandre Stadium in La Rochelle on October 24, 2021. (Photo by XAVIER LEOTY / AFP) (Photo by XAVIER LEOTY/AFP via Getty Images)

La Rochelle's Pierre Bourgarit (R) breaks away during the French Top 14 rugby union match between La Rochelle and Toulon at the Marcel Deflandre Stadium in La Rochelle on October 24, 2021. (Photo by XAVIER LEOTY / AFP) (Photo by XAVIER LEOTY/AFP via Getty Images)

Mon, 25 Oct, 2021 - 10:04
James Harrington

Since Fabien Galthie announced his 42-player squad for the first November Test against Argentina on Monday, the question of whether he plans to team up Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert for the first time has dominated rugby debate in France.

 

Word is France are ready to test the theory of switching Ntamack to 12 - despite the fact he hasn’t started at inside centre since December 2020 - and bringing Jalibert in at 10, even though it would mean breaking a well-established club-and-country 9-10 partnership.

It remains to be seen whether a Jalimack 10-12 partnership plan makes it further than the training grounds at France rugby’s 'Marcatraz' headquarters. If it does, the smart thinking is that it could become a common sight between now and the 2023 World Cup.

Ntamack’s performance in partnership with Dupont in Toulouse’s near-perfect derby win over Castres on Saturday may have the selectors rethinking their plans. The latter is reportedly top of a five-strong list to stand in for captain Charles Ollivon in the November Tests.

After last weekend’s five away victories, normal service resumed in the Top 14, with six home sides picking up four or five points in high-scoring matches.

 

And here’s the table, with Toulouse still top, La Rochelle and Montpellier climbing steadily, and Toulon close to hitting rock bottom.

 

Bordeaux hit win targets 

Bonus points have been hard to come by for Bordeaux, who had developed a tendency to hit the snooze button when they believed a game was won.

Despite five wins, a draw and a defeat in their opening seven games, they had garnered just one bonus point when they beat Stade Francais at home on the second weekend of the season.

The goal for Saturday was straightforward. Win at home against promoted Perpignan with a try-scoring bonus. Five tries later, including a double for scrum-half Yann Lesgourges, the job was done Perpignan were never really in the running as their inability to hold on to the ball made life easy for their hosts. Their fourth loss in a row saw them slip to the bottom of the table.

But Bordeaux coach Christophe Urios is still looking for that elusive 80-minute game. “We had an important objective, to win this match and to score tries,” he said. “But I thought we took things too easy.

“The Clermont machine is coming [next weekend] - we have to be ready for them.” 

Lima's lesson as Stade continue climb 

The Top 14’s strict one-minute limit for penalties came as a surprise to Lyon’s star-signing of the summer, Lima Sopoaga, as his well-aimed shot at goal in the 66th minute of Saturday afternoon’s trip to Stade Francais was ruled out for exceeding the allotted time by a second.

 

Had it counted, that kick would have taken the score to 23-21, and the last 13 minutes may have been very different. As it was, hosts Stade relaxed and kept the visitors at arms’ length until the referee signalled the end of the match.

 

Both teams had come into the game looking for a third win in a row. Lyon - who ended Toulouse’s early season winning streak last weekend - returned to southeast France with a losing bonus and questions of what might have been.

Not because of Sopoaga’s kick, or the five points that starting fly-half Leo Berdeu left out on the pitch, though they didn’t help. But because of the 20-minute period at the end of the first half, when their hosts scored 20 unanswered points.

 

In early October, Stade were bottom of the table. Today, they’re within touching distance of the play-off places. As coach Gonzalo Quesada said: “We're starting to look like the team we want to be."

But scrum-half Arthur Coville had a warning for fans and pundits. “A month ago we wanted to burn the club and today we are talking about the top six? We’re not looking at the table - it's too early. You do the accounts at the end."

La Rochelle go West to put Toulon on red alert 

Speaking of turnarounds … after their slow start to the season, Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle climbed to fifth with a 39-6 win over Toulon at Stade Marcel Deflandre, their third victory in a row and most convincing yet.

This was the strongest La Rochelle side that O’Gara has fielded this season. Victor Vito was back in the pack; Uini Atonio and Will Skelton reunited to put the hurt on from the tighthead side of the scrum; and Ihaia West - author of two tries, four conversions and two penalties - pulled strings at 10; with Jonathan Danty ready and willing to run through the defensive wall at inside centre. There’s no wonder Shaun Edwards reckons he’s the best midfielder in France.

 

Against an injury-ravaged Toulon side devoid of anything approaching confidence, that side, playing O’Gara’s brand of fluid, forceful, hybrid Top 14-Super rugby, was always going to win. The question was by how much.

Toulon president Bernard Lemaitre told Sud Ouest newspaper last week that head coach Patrice Collazo’s position is not in doubt despite a long-expected pseudo staff performance review and Freddie Michalak’s impending arrival as consulting individual skills coach.

Fans have other ideas. Toulonnais’ social media is awash with messages similar to this one:

 

Some plan to protest outside the club’s Berg training camp this week at what's threatening to be that start of a long winter of discontent.

They're at home to Biarritz on Saturday - that could be interesting...

Toulouse’s ‘perfect game’ far too good for Castres 

It’s a truth almost universally unknown that Castres have had the beating of Ugo Mola’s Toulouse since 2015. Before this weekend, Mola’s record against them was played 13, won five, drawn one, lost seven.

Then Saturday happened. For an hour, led by that Dupont-Ntamack hinge, Toulouse were close to unplayable. It was a stunning, almost telepathic, partnership performance that surely has the French staff second-guessing any plans to break them up.

 

And they were unbreakable in defence. They missed only five tackles, conceded just seven penalties, knocked on merely five times, to win 41-0, despite a 15-minute period in the first half when they were camped on their own line, beating back attack after Castres’ attack.

 

It’s easy to look to the failings of the losing side with results as one-sided as these. And Castres made mistakes - as hooker Gaetan Barlot admitted: “We were inaccurate, and they scored almost every time we made mistakes.” 

 

But that does Toulouse, in that mood, a huge disservice. Playing like that, they would beat just about any club side. Castres just happened to be the ones in their way.

 

There really wasn’t much Castres’ coach Pierre-Henry Broncan could say afterwards. “[Toulouse] played a perfect game - we came up against the real European champions,” he conceded. A genuine take the hit moment.

Springboks watch Springboks at play 

Cobus Reinach and Handre Pollard were the architects of Montpellier’s 32-21 win at Racing 92, watched and cheered by their Springbok team-mates spending a week in Paris to avoid quarantine rules in the UK ahead of the November internationals.

 

Reinach scored both Montpellier’s tries - including a 60m solo race for the line - while Pollard, at 12 with Paolo Garbisi at 10, was cool-headed organisation personified.

 

Another South Africa-born player, France lock Paul Willemse, was a muscular presence in defence. He made 15 tackles on his first start of the season - timely given his call-up to the national side.

Head coach Philippe Saint-Andre won’t take the credit for the club’s reversal of fortune since he left the director’s office and donned the tracksuit - on a strictly short-term basis, honest - following the departure of Xavier Garbajosa in January.

 

But his Montpellier are a team when previous incarnations were a squad of individuals. Despite their current injury levels, it’s increasingly easy to see their involvement at the business end of the campaign.

 

Just don’t expect anything in Europe...

Biarritz Basque in the sun 

Five tries and a bonus-point 37-9 scoreline makes Biarritz’s win over Brive look like a walk in a sun-drenched Parc des Sports Aguilera. It wasn’t that easy.

 

The fiesta didn’t start before an hour was on the clock. Until then, the match was mainly duked out in the forwards - and Brive were edging ahead in that particular battle, even if they were 13-9 down where it mattered.

But then Argentinian Tomas Cubelli gave the hosts’ breathing space with a stereotypical scrum-half touchdown off the back of a maul in the 62nd minute - and Biarritz scored three more in eight minutes when Brive skipper Said Hireche was sin-binned in the 68th-minute.

Parra’s kicking run ends 

Morgan Parra's record-breaking run of successful kicks at goal ended two shy of 50 as Clermont beat Pau 42-20 to pick up just their second bonus-point of the season.

 

The five-try win came despite the fact Camille Lopez limped off with a lower-leg injury in the third minute of the match at Marcel Michelin. He sprained both ankle and knee and suffered a concussion after landing awkwardly following an aerial challenge for the ball.

He was replaced by 20-year-old Gabin Michet. The rookie took a little time to adapt to the pace of the game, having played just three minutes of Top 14 rugby prior to Saturday’s unexpected extended run. Once he’d played out his understandable nerves, he seemed calm and in control. The start of a long and successful career, hopefully, beckons.

 

Pau’s key problem, head coach Sebastien Piqueronies admitted afterwards, was easy to identify. “Our heads were underwater for 25 minutes. We conceded nine penalties in 20 minutes, we had run out of ideas. We can't last 80 minutes,” he said.

Frustratingly, Pau - with Jordan Joseph on the bench following his loan move from Racing - were the better side in the first half, going in at the break 13-6 ahead. And then they stopped. It was a repeat of their Toulouse act, and an inverse of the Bordeaux performance when they finally turned up in time for the second half to give the hosts a real comeback scare.

One day, they’ll play 60 minutes, or even 80. And then they might be contenders.

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