Former player comes back to haunt Ronan O'Gara as La Rochelle fall to Castres

International call-ups and injuries forced Ronan O’Gara to ring the changes for La Rochelle. They had 15 players unavailable. 

Kerryman Ultan Dillane got a try for La Rochelle. Pic: XAVIER LEOTY / AFP via Getty Images

Former La Rochelle bit player Pierre Popelin came back to haunt Ronan O’Gara, scoring 14 points as bogey side Castres held tough to win 17-19 in front of another sell-out crowd at Stade Marcel Deflandre and end the Rochelais’ perfect home run this season.

International call-ups and injuries forced O’Gara to ring the changes for the return of the French men’s domestic top-flight at the back-end of the international window, as he juggled a squad with 15 players unavailable to face a side they have failed to win against at home in three outings.

But that does not excuse how they failed to take advantage of a spell in the second period when repeated indiscipline temporarily reduced the visitors to 12 players, particularly as the Rochelais 23 still featured plenty of international and Top 14 experience.

Antoine Hastoy will bear the brunt of the social media blame for the defeat. His routine 13th-minute goalline dropout was hit low enough to be charged down five metres away by Castres’ hooker Teddy Durand, who gathered and forced his way over for the definition of chancer’s try.

Popelin converted. Two more penalties took them 13-0 ahead by the half-hour, before Jack Nowell found a way to the line in the corner, moments after a forward pass denied Dillyn Leyds a try under the posts.

But he was far from the only offender in a rudderless La Rochelle side that only managed seven points in an 18-minute second-half spell in which they kicked six penalties to touch and Castres lost Tom Staniforth, Tyler Ardron and Jack Goodhue to yellow cards. Then, having finally taken the lead — courtesy of Ultan Dillane’s converted try – and with the visitors back at 13 on the pitch, La Rochelle conceded an avoidable penalty to hand the advantage right back.

Castres had ridden their luck, and — back to 15 — they held an increasingly desperate and disjointed La Rochelle at arm’s length for the remainder of the match, to claim their second away win of the season and offset their two defeats at home. This win, however, might turn out to be a turning point after a disappointing opening block for the visitors.

On Friday night — as the Top 14 rejigged its usual schedules to avoid a TV clash with France v Australia — brilliant Pau got the better of hosts Bordeaux, winning a thriller 33-34 at a sold-out Stade Chaban Delmas.

Winless Perpignan’s woes continue to mount, despite a change of staff during the international break, and the arrival of out-of-retirement 39-year-old fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta. His ‘grinta’ was far from enough as they lost 28-0 to Montpellier in a match moved from Stade Aime-Giral to Beziers as a sanction following crowd trouble earlier in the season.

Despite fielding a much-changed side because of multiple international call-ups, Toulouse were several classes apart from hosts Montauban, winning 49-7 at Stade Sapiac.

The only home sides to win in the first six matches of the returning Top 14 were Lyon and Racing. The former eased away from Clermont in the second half to win 43-24 and end a three-match losing streak, while the latter benefited from a late charge against Bayonne to win 47-27 at La Defense Arena.

On Sunday, the impressive Noah Nene will line up alongside the ever-reliable Jeremy Ward for Stade Francais as they host Toulon — giving Mateo Gracieux and Barnabe Mechantel their debuts — at Stade Jean Bouin. Dan Brennan will start his third match of the season for the visitors.