Top 14: 'Proud' Ronan O'Gara will sleep easier despite another loss on the road

La Rochelle may end the weekend in 12th after a third defeat in five games but the performance pleased O'Gara

Sat, 11 Oct, 2025 - 22:16

James Harrington

‘Proud’ Ronan O’Gara predicted he would enjoy a good night’s rest after his La Rochelle came within a whisker of victory at Stade Francais in the Top 14 on Saturday.

And no wonder. La Rochelle may end the weekend in 12th after back-to-back on-the-road losses and three defeats in the five games they have played, but his side’s committed, critic-quieting performance in the capital was night and day compared to the dismal effort at Montpellier last weekend.

A Louis Carbonel penalty after the hooter decided the result 26-24 in the home side’s favour, as the hosts just about survived a thrilling late fightback in a messy but enthralling encounter at Stade Jean Bouin.

The Parisians led 20-12 with 11 minutes left on the clock and looked to have the game wrapped up, before Georgian summer recruit Davit Niniashvili’s gravity and touch-defying try dragged the visitors back into the game.

A Carbonel penalty extended the home side’s lead in the 73rd minute. But Oscar Jegou drove over from close range following a 5m lineout three minutes later.

Antoine Hastoy converted to give La Rochelle the narrowest of leads with seconds remaining. It was, however, the hosts’ fly-half who had the final word from 40m with the clock in the red after one last big effort from his pack had won a scrum penalty.

“There are things to work on, that's for sure,” O’Gara said afterwards, understandably in a chirpier mood than he had been seven days previously. “Good things, even very good things, but we need to work — we need weeks to be better than last week. But I like it.

“I’m proud to be from La Rochelle tonight. I love the crowd, I love the stadium, I love the wave of supporters who believe in us, I really like it. The [losing] bonus point is a disaster, but I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

Hooker Pierre Bourgarit agreed, but admitted La Rochelle could have done better still. “Even with a cool head, we’ll say we lost three points. But I’ll remember the commitment.

“That’s what allowed us to outplay Paris. There were a lot of mistakes, but rugby is never lost. But we erased quite a few mistakes.

“We had a plan, we executed it very well for 75 minutes, but we had five minutes of slack that cost us the game. We were heavily criticised during the week, so I hope this will silence a lot of people who tell us what to do on social media.”

Like their Parisian neighbours, Racing 92’s season has got off to a vastly improved start. They made it four wins from five as they held off Montpellier in their first putin of the season in Creteil — with La Defense Arena out of action for money-spinning concert purposes. Vinaya Habosi scored the decisive try of the day’s seven with three minutes remaining as they won 32-25.

The October horrors arrived 20 days early for Bayonne. A 47-24 defeat at Pau saw them slip from 1st to fifth in the provisional table in the exaggerated early phase movements of the early season, with Joe Simmonds bagging 22 points for the hosts.

But the after-effects of the match may be felt for a long time to come, as Guillaume Martocq, Tom Lévêque, Arthur Iturria, Baptiste Chouzenoux and Maxime Machenaud all entered the Basque side’s already busy infirmary.

And the nightmare continued for bottom-of-the-table Perpignan, too, as they made it six losses in six with a 44-19 defeat at Stade Gerland against a Lyon side that won easily enough despite not finding their higher gears.

Following their shock opening day loss at home to Pau, Castres evened up their season’s win-loss balance with a 32-28 victory at promoted Montauban.

The hosts will rue a disastrous first-half, in which they gave up 26 unopposed points before Segundo Tuculet got their side of the scoreboard moving just before the break, and despite having a numerical advantage for 24 of the opening 40 minutes.

Alex Newsome scored twice as Clermont fairly comprehensively beat Toulon 27-10 in Saturday’s final Top 14 outing.

Italian international Ange Capuozzo lines up for Toulouse for the first time since the 26th and final round of last season for Sunday’s match against Bordeaux at Stade Ernest Wallon, while Emmanuel Meafou returns to the bench after picking up an injury in the opening weekend win at Clermont.

Damian Penaud has been named at outside centre for the first time since New Year’s Day 2023 in a heavily rotated Bordeaux, in which 19-year-old Joseph Laharrague — the son of former France international Julien — starts his first senior match at 10, with Joey Carbery on the bench; and 18-year-old scrum-half scrum-half Valentin Hutteau, who wore nine against Stade Francais a fortnight ago, is back among the replacements.