Ronan O'Gara: 'We've hit rock bottom, it's a black day for me'

“We were humiliated by a better team,” O’Gara said after the shock 38-21 defeat by Pau

Sun, 30 Oct, 2022 - 14:48

James Harrington

Ronan O’Gara hopes La Rochelle fans will maintain their legendary loyalty after seeing their side ‘humiliated’ at home by lowly Pau in the Top 14 - and promised them he would not make the same mistakes again.

“We were humiliated by a better team,” O’Gara said after the shock 38-21 defeat in front of a 72nd consecutive capacity 16,000 crowd at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

“We have a lot of work to do. It is hyper-frustrating for the public,” O’Gara admitted. “My stomach hurts for the fans, they will be disgusted, with good reason.

“It’s a big slap in the face - we must react quickly. We've hit rock bottom, it's a black day for me. Good managers don't make the same mistake twice, but we put our values in the trash tonight.”

O’Gara’s appeal to the fans came after his side, third in the Top 14 heading into the match, were comprehensively outplayed by a Pau side that had started the weekend second from bottom.

He will want an immediate reaction next Saturday at Brive - who dropped to the bottom of the table after an outrageous 38-43 loss at home against 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.

Even without five France internationals retained by Fabien Galthie for Saturday’s Autumn Nations series opener against Australia, O’Gara was able to pack his side with talent, replacing Gregory Alldritt with Matthias Haddad in the middle of the backrow, and naming Levani Botia at 12 in place of Jonathan Danty. Kyle Hatherall, meanwhile, made his Top 14 debut, having recently signed for the French club following the collapse of Worcester Warriors.

But they were no match for a Pau side playing above their potential. France under-20s captain Emilien Gailleton, who has just seven Top 14 matches to his name after joining La Rochelle from Agen in the summer, scored either side of halftime, while 22-year-old backrow Jordan Joseph mauled over as Pau opened up a surprise yet thoroughly deserved 29-14 lead five minutes into the second half. Both players were among 14 called up to the extended France squad on Sunday.

The result sees Pau - whose last win was against Toulouse on September 17 - move clear of the bottom two. Another low-flying side, Perpignan, gritted their way to a 28-21 win over Lyon at Stade Aime Giral.

Castres beat Clermont 26-22 at Stade Pierre Fabre to maintain an unbeaten domestic home run stretching back to December 2020. But the hosts made hard work of closing out the match, conceding a penalty try and a penalty in the closing few minutes.

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 - Galthie has retained nine of Ugo Mola’s players - fought back from 23-3 down at half-time to leave Bayonne with a losing bonus point. The converted try that took the score to 26-22 came with the clock five minutes into the red.

On Sunday, in the final match of the ninth weekend, an out-of-sorts Bordeaux entertained a Toulon side that had an on-the-road win in its sights.