Ronan O'Gara questions career choices after 'unacceptable' La Rochelle performance

La Rochelle have now won two and lost two games to start the Top 14 season.

Sat, 04 Oct, 2025 - 22:08

James Harrington

Dejected La Rochelle boss Ronan O’Gara questioned his career choices after watching his side melt away in an ‘unacceptable’ 37-13 Top 14 loss at Montpellier.

“We didn’t play well in the second half,” he said immediately afterwards. “We weren't precise, we made mistakes — it was so stupid. It was an unacceptable performance and hugely frustrating. It’s moments like these that make me wonder why I do this job.”

The result, the performance, was all the more disappointing as the visitors had started well. Suliasi Vunivalu scored the game’s opening try in the sixth minute, and they were 6-10 ahead at the end of the opening quarter.

“We were doing well, we were dictating the tempo even though we struggled in the scrum,” O’Gara said. “But after that, we missed tackles, one-on-ones; Kane Douglas had to come off and, away from home, that eats at your confidence.

“We tried to get back into the game but we shot ourselves in the foot.”

Joan Caudullo’s Montpellier aren’t a side that panics early, and they hit back in the 21st minute, through Domingo Miotti, who broke three tackles en route to the tryline, after his forwards had picked and gone at the Rochelais’ defence.

From that point on, it was Montpellier all the way, as La Rochelle struggled to cope with their power up front and their pace behind. Gabriel Ngandebe scored shortly after the half-hour. Lenni Nouchi extended their lead eight minutes into the second half, and replacement scrum-half Alexis Bernadet, on for Ali Price, won the race to Nouchi’s hack ahead 13 minutes from time.

“We were absent,” O’Gara fumed. “I have to take a lot of responsibility. What are we going to do from Monday to Friday? This week, we were strong on Tuesday and Thursday, and when you see this match, it’s shameful for me and for the supporters.

“There are urgent things to work on to win back, I hope, a minimum of respect — because today we lost a lot of respect and credibility. We were weak in many areas. We are far from a great Stade Rochelais team, that’s obvious.”

In his third Top 14 outing and his first start, 19-year-old scrum-half Esteban Gonzalez scored twice for Lyon as they gave line-fluffing Champions Cup holders Bordeaux a scare — until Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s second try of the match guided them to a 32-20 bonus-point win. How much this will paper over the early season cracks remains to be seen.

A total of 66 points in the first half, another 49 in the second. The two worst defences in the Top 14, Clermont and Montauban, who have conceded 418 points between them to date this season, played out a predictably high-scoring encounter at Stade Marcel Michelin.

The home side had by far the better of the afternoon, scoring 12 of the game’s 16 tries to win 84-31. The hope is that kind people took the two sides' defence coaches for a lie down in a darkened room.

Freshly minted Samoa international and ex-Connacht player Abraham Papali’i was Castres’ saviour with the clock in the red against Racing 92, as they came back from a 10-point deficit to win 20-16 in a thoroughly messy encounter at a rain-soaked Stade Pierre Fabre.

Stade Francais headed to Perpignan without a win on the road since March 2024, 18 Top 14 matches ago, and 21 in all competitions. They left having reset the counter on those figures, and top of the table for a few hours, courtesy of an 11-28 win at Stade Aime Giral, to leave the winless Catalans deeper in the mire.

Charles Ollivon returned to the Toulon 23 for the first time since suffering an ACL injury in January. He came off the bench in the second half of a 33-17 win over Pau at Stade Mayol, in which 43-year-old Ma’a Nonu broke his own week-old record for being the oldest player to score in the Top 14, and former Munster centre Antoine Frisch scored on his second outing in two weeks, following a long injury absence.

On Sunday, Bayonne host Toulouse. It is the first time since December 2020 that the two sides have met at Stade Jean Dauger outside the international windows. Jack Willis captains the visitors, while Australian international Rob Leota is set for his first start for the home side.