Ronan O'Gara warns La Rochelle players to 'look in the mirror'

Head coach labels Top 14 defeat at bottom of the table Perpignan a 'nightmare' - 'We were taught a lesson in aggressiveness'.

NOT HAPPY: Head coach Ronan O'Gara has advised his La Rochelle players to look in the mirror after their surprise defeat to Perpignan in the Top 14.

La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara warned his side that it was ‘time to look in the mirror’ after their three-match winning run shuddered to a halt with a 22-13 loss at bottom-of-the-table Perpignan.

O’Gara did not mince his words with his opinion of the performance at Stade Aime Giral on Saturday. “I'm the boss, I have to take responsibility,” he told regional newspaper Sud Ouest after the match. “We play a game that the players, both French and foreign players, love. But if this is our best effort, it's not a good signal.” 

Despite the absence of French internationals Uini Atonio, Gregory Alldritt, Jonathan Danty and Brice Dulin, the coach had selected a strong side for the match, featuring Will Skelton, Victor Vito, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Ihaia West, and Reda Wardi.

La Rochelle had numerous chances to win the match, and condemn Perpignan to another week of propping up the rest of the Top 14. The visitors dominated possession and territory but lacked both the aggression and the finishing touch to kill the game, and made several unforced errors that gave their determined hosts a foothold they should not have had.

“We made too many mistakes. It's a huge disappointment, a nightmare,” O’Gara said. “We had opportunities, but we were taught a lesson in aggressiveness.

“When you are hungry, anything is possible. We forgot to be aggressive. We forgot to look at the ball to catch it. We forgot that we had to ground the ball to score a try… ” 

The statistics point towards a La Rochelle win. They carried the ball for 872 metres, compared to Perpignan’s 249. They beat 33 defenders to Perpignan’s 11, and made eight linebreaks to the hosts’ three. But they conceded 16 penalties, 11 in the first half, were turned over 16 times, missed 22 percent of their attempted tackles - and West’s kicking yips returned as he notched just 25 percent of his shots at goal. Suddenly, their defeat looks as logical as it had been apparently improbable.

Most importantly, Perpignan’s veteran centre Afusipa Taumoepeau scored three tries, including one 80m spectacular, while La Rochelle could only manage two between them.

“For the players, being a rugby player is their job,” O’Gara said. “Those who played today are not in the French team, but the goal for everyone in my group is to be there. It's time to look in the mirror. With that, there are no surprises, no pressure from Fabien Galthie.”