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Bristol shock La Rochelle, Clermont win again
By Peter Thompson
Bristol Bears pulled off a shock by halting La Rochelle's long winning run with a 13-3 away victory to leave Clermont Auvergne as the only unbeaten side in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
Top 14 high-fliers La Rochelle beat Bristol 35-22 last weekend to extend their run of consecutive victories to eight matches, but they came unstuck in testing conditions at Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Saturday.
The Premiership side led 6-3 at half-time courtesy of two Callum Sheedy penalties to one from Arthur Retiere, and Bristol captain Jordan Crane slid over for the only try in the mud early in the second half.
Bristol defended superbly under pressure to see out a magnificent win which leaves them only four points behind Pool 4 leaders La Rochelle, who are just one better off than Zebre after the Italian side thrashed Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk 58-14.
Clermont are now unbeaten in eight and in control of Pool 1 following a seven-try 49-24 demolition of the Dragons at Stade Marcel-Michelin.
Judicael Cancoriet and Apisai Naqalevu claimed two tries apiece, while Greig Laidlaw scored 14 points with the boot as the Dragons were slayed.
The other Pool 1 clash between Timisoara Saracens and Northampton Saints was called off due to heavy snow in Romania.
Sale Sharks failed to make it four wins out of four in the competition as they were beaten at home by Bordeaux-Begles, Tom Bristow's red card for a swinging forearm proving to be costly as the Top 14 side ran out 17-14 winners, with Florian Dufour scoring a brace of tries.
Harlequins moved to the summit of Pool 5 with a 20-9 success over Benetton Treviso, while Worcester Warriors top Pool 2 after defeating Pau 23-7.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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