Bruising Sunday as O'Gara left to count the cost of a particularly punishing defeat to Perpignan
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Ronan O’Gara was left counting the injury cost of La Rochelle’s 21-13 loss following a fast, furious and physical Top 14 encounter at Perpignan that saw the visitors play the entire second half with a 20-year-old academy winger at scrum-half, and starting fly-half Antoine Hastoy finish the match at centre for the first time in his senior career.
The prospect of defeat in darkest Pyrénées-Orientales was always baked into O’Gara’s strategy for La Rochelle’s final outing of 2024. He rested a number of key players for the trip – including Will Skelton, Uini Atonio, Grégory Alldritt, Ulupano Seuteni, Dillyn Leyds and Ihaia West – with one eye firmly on next Saturday’s match against Toulouse at Stade Marcel Deflandre.
But the longer-term cost may prove more damaging, with crucial Champions Cup matches against Leinster and Benetton moving into view on the Rochelais’ horizon. Argentinian international Joel Sclavi briefly left the field with a leg injury before the clock had ticked past 10 minutes. He returned shortly after, but was definitively replaced by Georgian Aleksandre Kuntelia – back from suspension – shortly after the half-hour. Medical joker Suliasi Vunivalu’s second outing ended as he limped off with a thigh injury after 25 minutes.
Tavite Veredamu had already finished off a flowing 50m move to score Perpignan’s first try. And Ignacio Ruiz came up with the ball after a lineout maul for their second shortly before Sclavi went off for the second and final time.
Scrum-half Thomas Berjon struggled through to the break after picking up a leg injury in a tackle five minutes earlier. Hoani Bosmarin, who had earlier replaced Vunivalu to play in his ninth senior match, switched to scrum-half at the start of the second period.
Tomasso Allan increased Perpignan’s lead from the tee before a limping Levani Botia crashed through Tom Ecochard to reduce the deficit. He went off shortly afterwards.
That was the end of the scoring, but not the injury count, as La Rochelle held firm against repeated attacks on their line. Captain Jonathan Danty was replaced on the hour, forcing another positional rejig, with Hastoy moving to midfield for the first time in his professional career.
Earlier, 23-year-old fullback Martin Meliande nervelessly slotted an 80th-minute penalty to earn under-new-management Lyon a deserved 25-25 draw against Stuart Lancaster’s Racing 92 at La Defense Arena.
Lyon have won both their Challenge Cup outings and drawn both their Top 14 games – at home against Toulouse, and at La Defense Arena since Karim Ghezal took charge of day-to-day first team affairs in early December.
Illness has forced Antoine Dupont to withdraw from Toulouse’s squad for the Top 14’s grandstand final match of the year against Stade Francais at Stadium Toulouse.