O'Gara rings changes and sees La Rochelle feast on Montauban in eight-try romp

Top 14 round-up: Irish coach guides his side back to winning ways at home with 54-19 demolition of newly-promoted visitors

Sat, 18 Oct, 2025 - 22:03

James Harrington

Veterans Ihaia West and Levani Botia shone brightest in a squad studded with rising stars as Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle ran in eight tries in a 54-19 bonus-point victory over promoted Montauban at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

O’Gara rang the changes for his side’s return to home soil after two defeats of varying quality on the road, injuries and routine rotation necessitating the inclusion of several France under-20 internationals.

Jonathan Danty's ACL-enforced absence opened the way for 20-year-old Simeli Daunivucu to return to the starting XV for the first time since February, while winger Nathan Bollengier, 21, started his second match of the season.

Second row Charles Kanté Samba, 20, was in a Top 14 run-on line-up for the first time, while 19-year-old fly-half Diego Jurd played his first senior minutes — and scored his first points from the tee — off the bench.

Thomas Berjon, too, wore the nine shirt for the first time in the campaign, after playing 11 in Paris last weekend, forming a hinge partnership with West, with resting Nolann Le Garrec and Antoine Hastoy watching from the stands.

The older heads took the game by the throat. Jack Nowell opened the scoring in the 11th minute, Botia burst through the Montauban defence like the centre he once was in the 23rd minute to gift a try to Thomas Lavault on his 150th appearance.

A penalty try and the first of Botia’s double rounded off a dominant first half 28-0.

Young summer signing Semi Lagivala rounded off a magnificent team move to open his try account four minutes into the second half, and West — in one of his imperious, unplayable moods — hit a perfect line for a 50m run-in before the second-half was 10 minutes old.

Montauban finally troubled the scoreboard in the 53rd minute, future star Kylian Ringuet scoring the first of his side’s three tries.

But more instinctive West brilliance freed Hoani Bosmorin to score in the corner, and Botia rounded off La Rochelle’s try-scoring exploits 11 minutes from time.

West said afterwards he hoped this performance would be the start of a more consistent season. “We can always do better,” he said, “we’ll look at the tries they scored.

“We knew the fans were disappointed with our last two performances. With all due respect to Montauban, we wanted a five-point win — we did that.

“The goal now is to perform as well every weekend. I hope this can free us up. It will be a good challenge to go to Lyon, so we’ll need to have a good week.”

Scrum coach Uini Atonio, too, reckons there’s plenty of room for improvement. “We made a few mistakes, and at times we felt we weren’t aggressive enough,” he said. “There were some good things, some very positive aspects, but now we need to work on areas where we didn’t perform as well.”

The result leaves Montauban stuck in 13th on three points, courtesy of a draw against Montpellier and a losing bonus against Castres. It could be worse.

Pointless Perpignan’s early season nightmare continued. They remain stuck on zero points, 14 adrift of the Top 14’s safe spots, after a 12-27 loss at home to Bordeaux – who picked up their first points on the road this season.

The bottom two meet next weekend at Stade Sapiac. Already that game looks like a season decider.

Bayonne opened the Top 14 weekend with a comfortable 44-17 win over Clermont to extend their winning run at Stade Jean Dauger to 18 Top 14 matches. Backrow Esteban Capilla scored twice and made another to keep his name front and centre of Fabien Galthie’s mind as he finalises his squad for the November internationals.

Montpellier’s Lenni Nouchi also maintained his case for inclusion in the extended squad with his fourth try of the season as his side beat Lyon 35-13.

Like West and Botia at Marcel Deflandre, Leone Nakarawa proved that age is just a number on his first start for Castres since June as they held off a second-half Stade Francais fightback at Stade Pierre Fabre to win 29-24, after being 22-7 and cruising ahead at the break.

Replacement Jimi Maximin scored on the final hooter to give Pau a deserved 30-26 victory over Toulouse at Stade du Hameau, sending Sebastien Picqueronies’ side to the top of the table for the next week at least. But it came at a price, as influential fly-half Joe Simmonds limped off midway through the first half.

On Sunday, French international Charles Ollivon starts for Toulon for the first time since suffering an ACL injury in January in an unusual position, alongside Dave Ribbans in the second row, a position he has not played since May 2021.

Ollivon’s shift allows manager Pierre Mignoni to select Lewis Ludlam, Esteban Abadie and Zach Mercer in the backrow, while in the long-term injury absence of ex-Munster centre Antoine Frisch, Jeremy Sinzelle and Ignacio Brex make up an experienced midfield duo.