Ronan O'Gara's depleted La Rochelle fightback to earn bonus point

Joey Carbery stepped off the bench for Bordeaux after just 10 minutes as they fought back to win after being 29-7 down at half-time against Vannes. 

La Rochelle's Jonathan Danty is tackled during the French Top 14 match against Castres Olympique. Picture: MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP via Getty Images

Ronan O’Gara’s internationals-shorn La Rochelle headed home from Castres on Saturday with a losing bonus point that had seemed a forlorn hope at the end of a disastrous and indisciplined first half as the Top 14 returned in a flurry of yellow and red cards.

Centre Jonathan Danty started in the backrow for the first time in his career as O’Gara rang the selection changes for the trip to wind-swept Stade Pierre Fabre, with Uini Atonio, Reda Wardi, Georges-Henri Colombe, Will Skelton, Joel Sclavi, Paul Boudehent and Gregory Alldritt all on international duty.

Karl Sorin, meanwhile, ended up playing 77 minutes on his first Top 14 start at tighthead after being recalled from a loan spell at ProD2 side Soyaux Angouleme to cover a player shortage on the right of the front row.

Replaced by Aleksandre Kuntelia on 50 minutes, the 21-year-old was quickly thrown back onto the pitch, after the Georgian was sent off for a high tackle three minutes later. Prior to yesterday’s outing, his senior career consisted of 88 minutes in three second tier matches, on top of 45 minutes across three Top 14 games last season.

Recent away day nightmares quickly resurfaced for the Rochelais as their hosts raced into a 28-6 half-time lead, making the most of an insistent wind and a high penalty count in their favour. As well as Kuntelia’s red, La Rochelle had Kane Douglas sin-binned in the first half, while Adrien Seguret, Remi Baget and Nicolas Corato saw yellow for the hosts in the last 18 minutes of the match.

With the breeze at their backs in the second period, and with Castres catching their discipline virus, La Rochelle turned the game around despite playing half an hour with 14, pulling the score back to 28-24 – courtesy of tries from UJ Seuteni and Quentin Lespiaucq before the clock ran out on them.

A further 12 yellows – including two in a single passage of play at Vannes – and one more red were shown in Saturday’s other five Top 14 matches.

And, as rousing as La Rochelle’s fightback in vain was, it was nothing compared to that of Bordeaux – another side heavily affected by international call-ups – at Vannes. Joey Carbery made an earlier than expected appearance, after Matthieu Jalibert limped off injured after 10 minutes. By the end of the first-half, the high-flying visitors were 29-7 down as effervescent Vannes ran riot.

But Bordeaux fought back in the second period, taking the lead shortly after the hour, when the hosts were temporarily reduced to 13, eventually winning 29-37.

Lyon’s Baptiste Couilloud scored twice and was one of five players to spend 10 minutes in the bin at Stade Gerland as his side slipped to a 22-30 defeat against Clermont – their fourth defeat on the bounce.

Pau spent 30 minutes at a numerical disadvantage as they lost 30-3 at Montpellier – to match Lyon’s sorry recent record. Tyler Duguid crashed over for the bonus-point try for the home side with the clock in the red.

Perpignan’s young tighthead Akato Fakatika was sent off for a dangerous clear-out midway through the first half of their 41-9 loss at a much-changed Toulouse. Romain Ntamack, who missed the Autumn Nations Series with injury, returned to the starting line-up for the first time since October 12.

Gael Drean scored three – and had another overturned for a forward pass as Toulon kicked off the 10 weekend of the Top 14 season with a bonus-point 39-19 win over Bayonne at Stade Mayol.

The 10th round of the French domestic top-flight rounds up on Sunday, as Stade Francais host Stuart Lancaster’s Racing 92 at Stade Jean Bouin. With Owen Farrell sidelined with injury for several weeks, Antoine Gibert is set to makes his third start of the campaign for the visitors.