It doesn’t taste like revenge, but it’s a victory that La Rochelle takes without being asked. The losers of the last final of the French rugby championship beat Stade Toulousain 29-8 on Saturday December 30, a largely overhauled and hardly offensive reigning champion team, for the 11th day of the Top 14.
The Rochelais, with confidence at half mast in recent times, have returned to imperative success to extricate themselves from the dangerous zone and the reunion between the two tenors of French rugby, six months after the award of the last Brennus, was especially worth for the debauchery of fights, dotted with a few flashes that were initially unproductive, before Ronan O’Gara’s men found the right fuel just before the break.
The reigning champion, with only one French globalist present, Julien Marchand (11 minutes against New Zealand), had decided to leave his executives rest for this trip to the Atlantic Coast. Without insulting the Haut-Garonne second knives who, despite their great indiscipline, responded for half an hour to the physical challenge imposed by the Maritimes, the desire and enthusiasm ultimately made the difference to the advantage of the latter .
Well launched by a penalty try punishing the sixth visiting foul in 13 minutes, the debates took a little time to take off, the fault of solid defenses and minimal risk-taking. Then everything settled in three minutes before the break. From a winning scrum at 50 meters, Dillyn Leyds refocused a kick for UJ Seuteni, lonely and with sweaty hands, who slammed his pass towards the third line Levani Botia who concluded (38th).
Peaceful return for Grégory Alldritt
Deflandre barely had time to savor when young winger Nathan Bollengier, for his first start, intercepted a pass from Baptiste Germain and raced to bring the score to 24-3 at the break, offensive bonus in his pocket.
The time was then to secure this property, in a scenario almost identical to the first act: the Rochelais who pushed by pounding, the Toulouse residents who made a mistake and a penalty quickly played by Hugo Reus, relayed by Teddy Thomas and Brice Dulin, Leyds played Ange Capuozzo to score the fourth try (50th).
In these conditions, the third row Grégory Alldritt could return calmly after two and a half months of post-World Cup break, the name chanted and the aura already significant, without however giving the surplus to further punish Ugo Mola’s men, who will be hanging on, with their means, to stay below the 30 points conceded and saving the honor by the second row Clément Vergé after the siren.