Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin
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9:49 p.m., April 10, 2023
An exceptional guest of “Europe 1 Sport”, the president of the La Rochelle rugby club did not hide: Stade Rochelais will play both the Top 14 and the Champions Cup. Winners of Saracens this weekend, the Yellows and Blacks are now aiming for a historic double in the European Cup, a year after their historic victory against Leinster.
Stade Rochelais does not do things by halves. Winners of Saracens, current first in the English championship, this weekend in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, Ronan O’Gara’s men are once again in the last four of the most prestigious European rugby competition. Outstanding guest ofEurope 1 Sports (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), Vincent Merling, the president of La Rochelle has shown himself to be ambitious and intends to play on both counts until the end of the season: the Top 14 championship and the Champions Cup .
“The staff and the players have decided to play on both counts. They have the responsibility for this double objective on a personal basis”, he declared at the microphone of Lionel Rosso. A year after his historic victory, and surprise against the Irish of Leinster, in the final of the most prestigious of European competitions, Vincent Merling hopes to repeat this feat. For the president of La Rochelle, “playing both tables is something very complicated. You need the workforce for but we are hopeful and we play for that.” La Rochelle will receive (in Bordeaux), another English club in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup. They will face Exeter on April 30.
“What happiness”
In the semi-finals, Ronan O’Gara’s players will therefore continue their English triptych in a duel between the defending champion and the winner of the truncated 2020 event, less glamorous on paper than the umpteenth chiefs’ fight between Leinster and Toulouse, opposed to Dublin like last year at the same stage.
In the Top 14, La Rochelle, currently second behind its rival Stade Toulousain, hopes to win one of the two qualifying places for the semi-finals of the final stages. A hope of a double which is not surprising for Nicolas Dupin de Beyssat, present in Europe 1 Sports : “It’s great for this La Rochelle club which is built stone by stone and scientifically. And it’s a success at every stage.” And the Rochelais will be able to count on their supporters: “All that has happened to us for eight, nine years has been nothing but happiness. It’s always a crazy atmosphere in the stadium, it’s wonderful for our players. To feel supported as they are, it’s a lot of happiness”, rejoiced Vincent Merling.