Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle one step from first Top 14 title
ON THE CHARGE: La Rochelle's Will Skelton is tackled by Bordeaux's Maxime Lucu during the French Top 14 semi-final at Anoeta Reale Arena stadium in San-Sebastian. Pic: Gaizka Iroz/AFP via Getty Images
A second Champions Cup is not enough for Top 14 side La Rochelle - they have their sights on a first Bouclier de Brennus after negotiating a difficult semi-final against a determined Bordeaux in San Sebastian.
“A Brennus, when you are French, remains the ultimate title,” backs coach Sébastien Boboul said, echoing head coach Ronan O’Gara’s sentiment from earlier in the week, after Saturday’s 24-13 success on a sweltering afternoon in northern Spain.
“It’s the culmination of a marathon. We are missing this title and will work to try to get it.”
The most successful side in French rugby, 21-time champions Toulouse, stand in their way at Stade de France on Saturday night. Ugo Mola’s side fairly marmalised Racing 92 in the first semi-final on Friday night.
As La Rochelle seem to have Leinster’s number, so Toulouse look to have the beating of La Rochelle - January’s 30-7 win at Marcel Deflandre was a first for O’Gara’s side in eight attempts dating back to September 2019.
That losing streak included the Champions Cup and Top 14 finals in 2021, when Toulouse did the double. This year, La Rochelle are the side with twin titles in mind, but Boboul refused to get carried away.
“There are eighty minutes left to play against Toulouse, so there is no euphoria,” he said. “A few years ago, we were new to this level, but now we've been playing finals for three years - we're starting to get used to it.
“We have not had much success against Toulouse in finals, but we will try to ignore that.”
First-half tries from Dillyn Leyds, Pierre Bourgarit and Paul Boudehent, gave O’Gara’s side - featuring almost all their Champions Cup heroes for the first time since that afternoon at the Aviva - a commanding 21-3 first-half lead over Bordeaux at Anoeta Stadium.
It was a performance that threatened to be unnervingly reminiscent of their Champions Cup win in Dublin without the horror show of the first 10 minutes.
But a penalty try and a yellow card early in the second period forced La Rochelle into a long defensive set at a point they had probably expected to pull out of sight. It changed the shape of the game, if not the outcome.
La Rochelle rode the Bordeaux storm that followed without conceding further points, and an Antoine Hastoy penalty gave them an 11-point cushion with as many minutes remaining. From there, they kept their increasingly desperate opponents at arm’s length. This was sang-froid knockout rugby in the energy-sapping Spanish afternoon sun.
Boboul admitted the Champions Cup heroes had suffered with the heat and intensity in their first match since Dublin.
“We managed the first period well by playing in their camp, with a good kicking game, and putting them under a lot of pressure,” he said. “We did less well in the second period, probably because of the heat, and we lacked rhythm.
“We were playing a semi-final against a team that attacks well, and we hadn't played for three weeks. We lost a bit in the second half.”
The previous evening, Toulouse were just too good for a frantic and frenetic Racing 92. Their five-try 41-14 win was even more straightforward than the result suggests.
Racing were, by captain Gael Fickou’s own post-match admission, comprehensively outplayed all over the Anoeta Stadium. “We knew there was a gap, but not that big," he admitted. “What did we miss? Everything - the contact, the scrum, everything.” Heightened by immediate post-match disappointment though Fickou’s words were, he wasn’t wrong. The biggest-ever Top 14 semi-final victory was no less than Toulouse deserved.
“[Toulouse] weren't a notch above us, they were 10,” Fickou added. “Sometimes you're disappointed, but we are a long way from a title.
“The gap is enormous. It's annoying for [outgoing sporting director Laurent Travers], annoying for those who are leaving. Next season, a new staff comes in, and we've got to get our act together.” Racing have reached the knockout phase in the Top 14 every season since returning to the French top flight in 2009. They have gone on to reach the final just once, winning the Brennus in 2016 in front of a world-record crowd at Camp Nou. Their recent record also includes Champions Cup misses in 2016, 2018 and 2020.
Incoming coach Stuart Lancaster’s mission is deceptively simple: improve the success of the Top 14’s perennial underachievers.
That, however, is a story for next season - which kicks off on August 19, for a three-week run before breaking for the World Cup.
First, a colossal repeat of the 2021 final between the two best sides in the country signs off another marathon domestic campaign in France.
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