Players need to 'look in mirror' says O'Gara after La Rochelle slip to fourth consecutive defeat

At the end of a tough and emotional few days, disrupted by Wednesday morning’s shocking news of Uini Atonio’s heart attack, Rochelais’ heads weren’t in the game in the opening period at Stade Marcel Deflandre

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara called his team losers after their loss to Lyon. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

La Rochelle players ‘need to look in the mirror’ a disconsolate Ronan O’Gara said after his side slipped to 10th in the Top 14 table on the back of a 24-44 defeat at home to 12th-placed Lyon on the final domestic weekend before the Six Nations break.

“The top six? We're nowhere near the top six. We’re losers,” he told journalists on the back of La Rochelle’s fourth defeat in a row and their eighth in 11 games in as many weeks after the November break. “Many people in the city and the region are living in the past.