La Rochelle did not flinch in the Champions Cup quarter-final against English side Saracens on Sunday 9 April. A week after their big scare against Gloucester, the team easily took the lead over the helpless Premiership leaders (24-10).

In the semi-finals in three weeks, Ronan O’Gara’s players will continue their English triptych with Exeter, in Bordeaux, in a duel between the defending champion and the winner of the truncated 2020 event. -final will oppose, like last year, Leinster to Toulouse, who easily disposed of the South Africans of the Sharks (54-20) on Saturday.

As expected, this quarter was less lively than the previous three with only three tries scored and defenses up to the event, especially that of La Rochelle. He confirmed the preponderance of Levani Botia. Beyond the ground fight, the Fijian, elected man of the match, brought his share in the game with several devastating charges, before this crossing at the hour of play followed by a service with small onions for the double of Tawera Kerr-Barlow, synonymous with a real break (21-3).

As expected, the home power did damage on every impact, with the only Maro Itoje able to respond to it over the length. Antoine Hastoy, 5 out of 7 against the poles, improved the score, as did Kerr-Barlow, who chose an oblique race to reward the first highlight of his team (16-3, 34).

And the English in all this? Aside from the scrum, they showed weakness in the majority of sectors and of the five times they got really close to the line, they only breached it once by incoming Eroni Mawi (21-10, 62). The others, whether on balls carried following penalties or on scrums, were either boxed up like Nick Tompkins (52), or could not flatten after having nevertheless reached the promised land (74, 75) when they played in numerical superiority (yellow card for Brice Dulin).

The sufficiency of the caravel players had been pointed out by O’Gara after the qualification torn off against Gloucester (29-26). This time, the Irish manager will not be able to blame his fighters for much, ready to migrate with their yellow and black people in three weeks to Bordeaux with the aim of inviting themselves to the final for the third time in a row.

Semi-final program (April 29/30)

Leinster (IRL) – Toulouse (FRA), at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin

La Rochelle (FRA) – Exeter (ENG), at the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux

The final will take place on May 20 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.