Top-14 round-up: Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle secure first bonus-point of the season

Whatever it was the manager said in the changing rooms at the end of a lethargic, sleep-inducing first-half awakened his side to a much more urgent and greatly improved second half.

Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle picked up their first bonus-point of the season at the fifth time of asking. Pic: Pic: Nick Elliott, Inpho.

Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle picked up their first bonus-point of the season at the fifth time of asking as they recovered from a slow start to return to winning ways after two defeats in a row with a six-try 38-13 win over Clermont at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

Whatever it was the manager said in the changing rooms at the end of a lethargic, sleep-inducing first-half – despite tries from Dillyn Leyds and Simeli Daunivucu, they went in at the break 12-13 down – awakened his side to a much more urgent and greatly improved second half.

Backrow Theo McFarland scored his first La Rochelle try eight minutes into the second half; Antoine Hastoy added a second 11 minutes later; and tries in the 64th and 68th minutes for Paul Boudehent and Jack Nowell sent the crowd into second-half rapture.

But there was concern among the staff after scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec left the pitch 10 minutes from time with a hamstring injury, joining an already busy infirmary.

“At half-time, we told ourselves we needed to stop talking so much and wake up,” fly-half Hastoy admitted afterwards.

“That was more or less the message. We’d had a spell towards the end of the first half – or at least one move – where we saw what we’d planned could work.

“I don’t know the first-half stats, but I reckon they must have had two-thirds of the possession. When we had it in their half, we’d lose either a lineout or a scrum. It’s difficult to impose a rhythm or tempo without the ball.

“It’s mad, the two different sides we can show. The positive thing is that it happened in the second half. We can build on that – it gives us confidence. We got five points, it’s still a good afternoon.”

Bordeaux, too, recovered from a disappointing performance in defeat last week, running in eight tries in a 51-28 dismantling of Lyon at Stade Chaban Delmas.

Perpignan’s veteran Benjamin Urdapilleta – in his first outing since coming out of a brief retirement – became the highest points scorer in the professional history of the Top 14 and its predecessor the Top 16 when he converted Braydon Ennor’s 29th-minute try against Racing 92 in Creteil.

But his record was the only high-point of the Catalans’ away-day in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris as they were handily beaten 55-25.

A literal and figurative game of two halves in Vannes, as the promoted ProD2 side picked up their first point of the season. Visitors Pau roared into a six-try 40-14 first-half lead – Axel Desperes scoring an early contender for try of the season – only to lose the second-half 26-3 and escape Stade de la Rabine with a 43-40 victory.

Two tries in seven minutes for ex-La Rochelle scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow – in a mixed bag of a performance that ended in injury – were not enough for his new club Stade Francais to claim a win on the road at Bayonne. A momentum-swinger of a match ended 35-32 in favour of the Basque side.

A heavily rotated Toulouse side, featuring two Top 14 debuts and a couple of professional firsts, shocked a more experienced Castres by hanging tough to win 8-7 at a windblown Stade Pierre Fabre. The home side have only themselves to blame, as they had enough of the ball and the territory to claim the points.

With their home ground pitch unplayable, Montpellier will host Toulon at Stade de la Mosson, home of the city’s Ligue 2 football team.

International backrow Lenni Nouchi has been named on the bench for his first outing of the season for the home side after recovering from an ankle injury picked up during France’s southern-hemisphere Nations Championship series in July.

The visitors, meanwhile, have gone with a seven-one bench split, as Dave Ribbans makes his second start of the season after recovering from an injury suffered in last season’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Leinster.