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La Rochelle hold off Edinburgh to reach semis
By Nicholas McGee
Edinburgh's valiant second-half comeback fell short as La Rochelle progressed to the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup with a 32-22 away win.
Neither side progressed beyond the pool stage of last season's competition, but the Top 14 club are just one game away from the final as their impressive first half proved enough to secure victory.
Two tries from hooker Jeremie Maurouard and further efforts from Arthur Retiere and Steeve Barry helped La Rochelle establish a 26-12 half-time advantage.
Phil Burleigh and Ross Ford went over for Edinburgh in the opening 40 minutes and a comeback appeared on the cards when Hamish Watson latched onto an excellent offload from Bill Mata.
The gap was just four points after Duncan Weir's 66th-minute penalty, which came after La Rochelle's Lekso Kaulashvili was sin-binned for an off-the-ball hit on Damien Hoyland.
But Edinburgh could not make their numerical advantage count and two penalties from Brock James - who accounted for 12 of La Rochelle's points - made the game safe.
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Latest Comments
Yes they caved to public demand, I bet it accomplished a lot of internal goals. They could have left it to the other groups, but I’m of the belief that they weren’t showing the capability to make it work as being a good reason for NZR to jump in and do it. I think it’s actually funded 50/50 between NZR and WR though.
Neither is that fact true. Only 3 non NZ players are allowed in each squad.
I see you also need to learn what the term poach means - take or acquire in an unfair or clandestine way. - Moana have more slots for non eligible players (and you have seen many return to an NZ franchise) so players are largely making their own choice without any outside coercion ala Julian Savea.
Another inaccurate statement. Take Mo’unga’s nephew Armstrong-Ravula, if he is not eligible via ancestry in a couple of generations time, he will be eligible because he plays his rugby there (even if he’s only their for rugby and not living there), that is a recent change made by World Rugby to better reflect examples like Fabian Holland and Fakatava.
Look I understand you’re reason to cry and make an example at any opportunity, but you don’t really need to anymore, other recent changes made by WR are basically going to stop the Ireland situation, and time (perhaps no more than a decade) will fix the rest.
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