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Leinster's Ciaran Frawley lands 60m penalty to seal epic win over La Rochelle
By Ian Cameron
In a captivating clash at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre, Irish giants Leinster emerged victorious with a memorable 16-9 win over bitter European rivals La Rochelle, with replacement Ciaran Frawley very much the hero of the hour.
Frawley showcased nerves of steel in the 80th minute, slotting an incredible 60-metre penalty that ultimately sealed the epic triumph for Leo Cullen's side.
Leinster scored first through wing Jordan Larmour in the 11th minute - converted by Harry Byrne - after some neat passing from the Leinster backs despite torrential conditions.
La Rochelle hit back through the boot of Antoine Hastoy, who slotted three penalties as the home side looked to reel in Leinster.
The visitors stuck to the task, however. Super-sub Frawley kicked a crucial penalty in the 59th minute, further extending Leinster's lead to 13-9, placing the men in blue in a favourable position as the match entered the final quarter.
After some sustained pressure from La Rochelle, Leinster were awarded a penalty on their 10-metre line and chose to kick to posts in what was presumed by many as time time-wasting tactic with just a minute left on the clock. Frawley however landed the whopper kick and Leinster come away with a famous victory over the side that had beaten them on the last three occasions in this competition.
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URC us doing very well with it’s competitiveness given that each group has it’s own salary caps and entirely different makeups, from clubs, to provinces, to franchises and regions. One group might be teams from the most populace country with the biggest rugby base while another the smallest, with the least amount of rugby players to chose from.
I would also be interested in a average clock length (don’t need to go into the whole BIP hole) showing how long the last phases are taking (because one team is trying to still alter the match points outcome in some way) to complete before the game finally ends. I don’t know if its more common this year but in general I wonder if its a stat that can show how good games are/were?
You really had the same reversed 10 points lead % as you had lead changes after the 75th?
Some of these values while standing out numerically against each other have a much less correlative impact than some that tighter differences which might only stick out a small amount. While SRP’s ones might not necessarily be such examples (and here I’m still going off the basic principle that everyone knew this was happening, even though I was challenged about that assumption) they have had the advantage of the fixtures being were doctored even more than normal. In this instance its irrelevant whether they were doctored or not of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there hasn’t been a lot of cross over of worst v best yet. Maybe it just feels like that because the worst are so much better this year? I definitely think that it is undeniable that all the bottom teams (that remain) have gotten better.
So I would be very interested in another weight graph of the games still, but regardless I don’t think it’s fair for SRP to claim anything over the other leagues yet. Certainly as I have said numerous times about the Top 14, it’s sub par compared to what it’s billed up to be, but that is the only league in this group that has promotion and relegation, which is the antitheses of a competitive league, so a trade off there.
Thank you very much for sharing your research though Dmitri, I hope you find another topic to get interested about!
Go to commentsI can’t believe Rugby Australia thought the NZRU would accept 1-12 split. I’m sure if the split was more even then the NZRU would’ve made it work.
It’s even worse when the NZRU relatively recently gave Rugby Australia a bigger cut of the Super Rugby broadcast.
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