Relief for O'Gara as late, late penalty edges La Rochelle past understrength Toulouse outfit

The sighs of relief around the ground were almost as loud as the applause as Antoine Hastoy’s kick flew between the posts with the clock in the red.

La Rochelle's French flanker Gregory Alldritt runs with the ball next Toulouse's Australian hooker Malachi Hawkes. Pic: XAVIER LEOTY / AFP

Antoine Hastoy kicked an after-the-hooter penalty as Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle escaped to a hard-fought 22-19 victory over a youthful Toulouse side that was so experimental it was little more than a hypothesis.

The sighs of relief around the ground were almost as loud as the applause as Hastoy’s kick flew between the posts with the clock in the red, minutes after an ice-cool drop goal from the visitors’ young fly-half Valentin Delpy stunned the 100th consecutive sell-out crowd at Stade Marcel Deflandre.