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La Rochelle win at Bordeaux for the second successive Saturday
By PA
La Rochelle made it two away wins over Bordeaux in the space of a week as they followed up last Saturday's Top 14 16-15 victory with an even more generous 31-13 Heineken Champions Cup first leg win this Saturday.
Five tries lit up a lively last-16 first leg at Stade Chaban-Delmas that saw La Rochelle pull away in the third quarter. Raymond Rhule and Jonathan Danty touched down for the visitors, who were also awarded a penalty try, while Ihaia West slotted four penalties.
Cameron Woki and Federico Mori crossed for Bordeaux, who sit a place higher than La Rochelle in the French league.
La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara was not present on the sidelines for the victory as he is serving a two-week suspension for “indiscipline, in particular for challenging the decisions of match officials” incurred against Racing 92 a fortnight ago.
The result puts La Rochelle in a strong position to qualify for the quarter-finals, with the second leg to be played at the Stade Marcel Deflandre next Saturday.
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Latest Comments
The match experience still sucks at SR games, irrespective of the game being a little quicker. Rugby has to compete with so much in the modern world, if you’re going to get people to leave their houses and pay to watch a game in winter then the experience has to be worthwhile.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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