O'Gara's La Rochelle stunned by lowly Pau in error-strewn loss
BACK-TO-BACK LOSSES: La Rochelle's coach Ronan O'Gara. Photo: XAVIER LEOTY/AFP via Getty Images
La Rochelle fly-half Antoine Hastoy’s first start in a month against his former side ended in defeat as second-from-bottom Pau shocked Ronan O’Gara’s clumsy La Rochelle 38-21 in a high-intensity encounter at Stade Marcel Deflandre.
The visitors - en route to ending a five-match losing streak - scored two interception tries in a clumsy opening half-hour from the Champions Cup winners that prompted flanker Remi Bourdeau to admit at halftime: “We're stammering our rugby, we can't get things going. We need to put some fight and commitment back in. In the locker room, it's going to be a bit tense.” But any halftime dressing room rollicking didn’t catch, as La Rochelle slipped to their second Top 14 defeat in as many games.
Pau’s 19-year-old centre Emilien Gailleton scored his second try of the game, and Jordan Joseph mauled over as they opened up a surprise yet thoroughly deserved 29-14 lead within five minutes of the restart.
La Rochelle scored three tries of their own through Thierry Paiva, Dillyn Leyds and Matthias Haddad - but they were unable to match the visitors for sheer will, and conceded crucial penalties late on as they chased the game, and were duly punished by Zack Henry.
The result sees Pau - whose last win was against Toulouse on September 17 - move clear of the bottom two, after Brive lost 38-43 at home to Racing 92, despite scoring three times in the closing 10 minutes and winning the try-count five-four, to slip to the foot of the table.
Another low-flying side, Perpignan, gritted their way to a 28-21 win over Lyon at Stade Aime Giral.
In the weekend’s opening Top 14 match, Castres beat Clermont 26-22 at Stade Pierre Fabre to extend their unbeaten domestic run at home by one more match. But the hosts made hard work of closing out the match, conceding a penalty try and a penalty in the closing few minutes to allow Jono Gibbes’ visitors to head home with a losing bonus point.
Defending Top 14 champions Montpellier ended a four-match losing streak with a 23-19 win over Stade Francais at the GGL Stadium. An after-the-hooter penalty meant the visitors returned to the capital with a losing bonus.
A much changed Toulouse side - Fabien Galthie this week retained nine of Ugo Mola’s players for next Saturday’s Autumn Nations opener against Australia - joined the ranks of Racing 92, Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Perpignan in failing to win at Bayonne’s season-long fortress Jean Dauger. A second-half fightback from the visitors transformed the score from 23-3 shortly after half-an-hour to 26-22 at the final whistle, five minutes after the clock had ticked beyond the 80.
On Sunday night, Bordeaux climbed to 10th in the table, four points behind second-placed Stade Francais, with a blistering 27-26 home win over Toulon in front of a 31,936 crowd at Stade Chaban Delmas.
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