Top 14: fighting words from Alldritt after La Rochelle draw

BUSINESS END: Stade Rochelais' Head Coach Ronan O'Gara saw his side draw with Castres. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

La Rochelle aren’t ready to give up on qualification for the post-season play-offs even after a 12-12 draw at home against Castres extended their winless streak to seven matches, returning captain Gregory Alldritt insisted.

“I’d rather try to pull myself up than be scared of the bottom [of the table] and play with the fear of losing,” Alldritt, one of four France Six Nations stars in the 23, told reporters. “I want to play to win – to go to Clermont [next week] to win, to play Munster and win.

“I don’t want to start thinking that a point would be a good result in Clermont, or that defeat in the Champions Cup would give us more preparation time to play for survival.” 

Those are determined words, but time is running out for Ronan O’Gara’s side to win over an increasingly disheartened home crowd. The silence that greeted the final whistle at Stade Marcel Deflandre on Saturday was worse than the whistles that sent them into halftime in the loss against Racing a month ago.

O’Gara had certainly heard those: “They were the first in five years I think," he admitted to L’Equipe in the lead-up to this week’s match. “But we deserved them.” There was no shortage of effort from La Rochelle on Saturday – Alldritt maintained that weekly preparation is excellent: “There's great energy,” he said. 

“Honestly, the training sessions are of high quality – I’m not sure many teams train like us.” However, he admitted: “The problem is that it’s the weekends that count.” 

This weekend, effort was undone by indiscipline, imprecision and set-piece issues. La Rochelle scored through Jack Nowell and Paul Boudehent in the opening 15 minutes to open up a 12-3 lead. Oscar Jegou broke free in the second half, but found only the fourth referee with a wayward pass. It was that sort of performance. Frustrating, exasperating.

Even then, they could even have stolen a try-scoring bonus at the death, as they phased up to within two metres of Castres’ line.

One more breakdown mistake gifted the visitors – who have lost just once in their last five away matches – the ball. And there’s no hiding from the fact that the Rochelais played over an hour without scoring, at home, in front of their own fans. No wonder the quiet was so loud.

O’Gara acknowledged the problem, but urged patience: “We’re in a difficult period – our fans are frustrated, I understand that. But we need to work harder, be more disciplined.

“We’ve got a big week ahead, before we go to Clermont. I understand the frustration with our results, and with the staff. We’re confident, but we need to change things. We’ll talk about it after Clermont.” 

Alldritt’s right, though. Despite everything, La Rochelle are just four points off the top six. It’s not over quite yet. But a turnaround has to start with the Champions Cup round-of-16 encounter with Munster on April 5.

Racing 92 and Stade Francais did their Top 14 survival chances precisely no harm with crucial victories. Patrice Collazo’s Racing held tough against a late onslaught from Clermont to win 23-21 at Stade Marcel Michelin and condemn Christophe Urios’s side to their fifth loss on the bounce.

Stade Francais, meanwhile, shared seven tries – and as many yellow cards – with Bayonne in a momentum-shifting 31-27 victory at Stade Jean Bouin. Head coach Paul Gustard is making it very difficult for club owner Hans-Peter Wild to release him from the final year of his contract so he can take charge at Premiership side Leicester next season. In fact, Dr Wild told Canal Plus on Saturday night that he wanted Gustard to stay.

Joe Simmonds’ 83rd-minute drop goal decided an end-to-end thriller between Pau and Montpellier at Stade du Hameau. The home side had been 31-18 up early in the second period – but needed Simmonds’ accurate boot to win 40-38.

Replacement hooker Camille Chat scored two late tries as Lyon came from behind to beat bottom of the table Vannes 36-21.

Melvyn Jaminet dived over for his first try since his return from a lengthy ban as Toulon climbed to a provisional second with a 40-19 bonus-point win over struggling Perpignan in a rainstorm at Stade Mayol.

The final match of the first weekend of the post-Six Nations Top 14 season sees Bordeaux host Toulouse. The two coaches have adopted different approaches to squad selection. Ugo Mola has given all his Six Nations internationals the week off, while Yannick Bru has rested only Yoram Moefana, who played every minute for France.