Toulouse put paid to 13-man La Rochelle’s Top 14 ambitions in dramatic semi-final

RED MIST: Stade Rochelais head coach Ronan O'Gara. Pic: Gareth Copley, Getty Images

Toulouse 39 La Rochelle 23

Discipline put paid to 13-player La Rochelle’s bid for a first Top 14 title at the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux, as they lost their semi-final 39-23 against nemesis side Toulouse.

Ronan O’Gara’s side have now come off second best in five knockout matches between the two sides – including previous Top 14 finals in 2021 and 2023, when Romain Ntamack’s successful late entry for try of the season in the 78th minute of the final overturned a match in which La Rochelle had the upper hand.

And the Rochelais were in front in Bordeaux on Friday in what was promising to be a final in all but name, before second-half red cards for props Uini Atonio, for a dangerous challenge on Thibaud Flament in the 43rd minute, and Red Wardi, for a headbutt on replacement hooker Julian Marchand just after the hour, brought their challenge to a shuddering halt.

As well as the two reds, referee Tual Trainini sent Jack Nowell, Jack Willis and Julien Marchand to the sin-bin. But, despite the cards, the match didn’t have an ill-disciplined air. It was a hard and fast-paced game, rather than dirty and niggly.

In fact things were set-up nicely before Atonio saw red. Captain Gregory Alldritt had crashed over on the stroke of halftime as La Rochelle edged an all-action, high-intensity first-half at the Matmut Atlantique 20-15.

Willis had just been yellow-carded, the scapegoat for repeated Toulouse offsides, giving Antoine Hastoy an easy shot at goal, but Alldritt gambled on a bigger prize and opted for a kick to touch.

He had every reason to try a lineout strike move. It had worked earlier in the game, when hooker Tolu Latu came up with the ball after a 5m lineout maul from a 12th-minute penalty.

The Rochelais’ two scoring strikes bookended an all-in half that – in most areas other than on the scoreboard, defending champions Toulouse had, just about, the upper hand.

For the third week in a row, La Rochelle started with the same line-up. Matthias Haddad, on the bench, was the only change to the 23 that comfortably beat Toulon at Stade Mayol last Saturday.

Worryingly for O’Gara’s pretenders, a rested Toulouse side – a number of their starting XV had not graced a Top 14 teamsheet in a month, and the squad had spent the barrage-round week at a training camp in Portugal – looked like they could play better.

Ugo Mola’s side scored twice in the 10 minutes winger Jack Nowell was in the bin for straying offside while defending the line.

Toulouse opted for one of the now popular complex tap penalties. They went towards the posts, then Antoine Dupont fired a flat pass to Blair Kinghorn out on the wing.

The Scot dodged past Judicael Cancoriet to score the opening try of the game. Nowell had been off for less than a minute.

With seconds left on Nowell’s yellow-card clock, La Rochelle conceded another penalty in their own 22. Toulouse phased their way patiently across the pitch before Dupont engineered just enough space for Juan Cruz Mallia to dive over in the corner.

The pair repeated their small spaces trick five minutes after Atonio was sent off, as Toulouse took a firm grip on the game.

Peato Mauvaka had just been denied a try by a marginal forward pass after a delightfully intricate open-play move involving Ramos, Kinghorn and Mallia that had the delightfully mad, unstructured, dabs of attack coach Clement Poitrenaud all over it.

Minutes later, centre Santiago Chocobares charged down Brice Dulin’s clearance to score under the posts and put the game out of La Rochelle’s reach. Not that they knew it.

Despite being nine points and two players down, the Rochelais scrapped and fought their way to a penalty – their only points of the second half, it would turn out, converted by Hastoy to pull them, briefly, to within six points.

And Toulouse’s leading try-scorer this season Matthis Lebel came on three minutes from time to add a fifth with seconds left on the clock.

Defending champions Toulouse head to Marseille for next weekend’s final, where they will meet the winner of Saturday’s semi-final – also at the Matmut Atlantique – between Stade Francais and Bordeaux.

Their only concern, an injury to loosehead Cyril Baille, who was stretchered off the pitch 10 minutes into the second period.

Toulouse: Ramos; Mallia, Chocobares, Ahki (Costes 77’), Kinghorn (Lebel 77’); Ntamack, Dupont (Graou 78’); Roumat (Mauvaka 65’, Roumat 72’), Willis (Brennan 63’), Cros; Flament, Arnold (Fa’asalele 49’); Aldegheri (Ainu’u 10’, Aldegheri 18’, Ainu’u 58’), Mauvaka (Marchand 53’), Baille (Neti 49’).

La Rochelle: Dulin (Sclavi 65’); Nowell (West 72’), Seuteni, Favre (Danty 49’), Leyds; Hastoy, Kerr-Barlow (Berjon 63’); Alldritt (Tanga 72’), Jegou (Haddad 63’), Cancoriet; Skelton (Picquette 77’), Picquette (Colombe 44’); Atonio, Latu (Lespiaucq 51’), Wardi.

Referee: Tual Trainini.