1
Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle beat Montpellier to reach Champions Cup semis
By PA
La Rochelle booked their place in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-finals with a 31-19 win over Montpellier at the Stade Marcel Deflandre.
Dany Priso scored under the posts to settle the hosts, with Ihaia West converting and also adding a penalty inside the opening 20 minutes.
Victor Vito went over to further extend the lead, with West again adding the additional points.
Montpellier gave themselves hope heading into the break with a try from prop Henry Thomas, which was converted by Louis Foursans-Bourdette to reduce the deficit to 17-7.
The visitors continued their momentum as Yvan Reilhac drove over from a loose ball, but Levani Botia’s try in the corner soon restored La Rochelle’s cushion.
A try from Zach Mercer on the left flank kept Montpellier in touch before West landed three penalties, taking his total points tally to 16, to push La Rochelle through to a semi-final against either Top 14 rivals Racing 92 or Sale Sharks.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
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.
Go to comments