Champions Cup: La Rochelle overthrow Leinster in the final and retain their trophy


Unsinkable, impressive, stunning. Stade Rochelais sewed a second star on its jersey by winning a new Champions Cup despite a disastrous start to the match on Saturday in Dublin, at the expense of the Irish Leinster (27-26). The Maritimes recovered from a deficit of three Irish tries in the first twelve minutes (17-0) to seek this second continental crown in a row and settle at the table of the greatest.

“We did something huge. It’s incredible,” said La Rochelle opener Antoine Hastoy, at the microphone of France Télévisions. “At first it was a nightmare for the whole team. But we were able to stay united and show character.” Les Rochelais become the first club to retain their title since the English Saracens (2016, 2017), the first French club since Toulon, which had lifted the “big” European Cup three times between 2013 and 2015.

Start gun of the Irish

They also allow Toulouse to remain the only team to have won the competition five times (1996, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2021). For the Irish, it will still be necessary to wait to join the Red and Black because, as in 2022, they fell on the yellow and black Rochelais bone. In Marseille, almost a year ago, La Rochelle won at the last second, thanks to a trickster try from Arthur Retière (24-21). In Dublin, in a supercharged atmosphere, the Leinstermen hit hard from the start, scoring three tries in twelve minutes, by hooker Dan Sheehan (1st, 12th) and winger Jimmy O’Brien (6th), against Asphyxiated Rochelais.

Caught by the throat, Ronan O’Gara’s proteges knew how to bend without ever breaking. On the verge of knockout, especially when their scrum half Tawera Kerr-Barlow (10th) was temporarily excluded, the Maritimes took almost twenty minutes to enter the game. But they gradually returned to the match, reducing the gap with a try from Jonathan Danty (20th), with a pack that took over his vis-à-vis. Not enough to alter the confidence of the Rochelais, aware of their qualities as the third center line and captain Grégory Alldritt had explained the day before: “With a lot of humility, we are confident, we are sure of our strengths: if we is at our best level, we will be very hard to beat”.

La Rochelle waves after the locker room

After the disastrous start, their power gradually disrupted the machine of the Irish, who had made the Champions Cup their main objective this season, scoring 336 points and 46 tries in the previous eight matches. After Danty’s try (20th), that of the center UJ Seuteni (38th) put the French back within reach just before the break (23-14). The waves of La Rochelle then swept over the courageous but dying Leinster defense until the left prop Georges-Henri Colombe (72nd) made it give in.

With the Irishman O’Gara in charge, Stade La Rochelle obviously has the science of winning. Despite the yellow card inflicted on Danty (75th) and the exit on a stretcher from Colombe (79th), nothing could have prevented the Yellow and Blacks from lifting the trophy. Certainly not Leinster, who finished the game at thirteen after a yellow card and the red given to pillar Michael Ala’alatoa (79th). On the road to the World Cup (September 8-October 28), where the French and the Irish are favorites, and after the last Six Nations Tournament overflown by the two teams, this new clash between La Rochelle and Leinster had tunes of revenge as much as dress rehearsal. And it was the Rochelais who offered themselves a sumptuous double.





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