Third defeat for three games for Stade Rochelais: Ronan O’Gara’s players lost in Auvergne against ASM, 23/22. The next meeting against Biarritz on Saturday at Deflandre promises to be under tension.
Certainly the playing conditions were deplorable: pouring rain and a swirling wind, so we could not expect a festival from the two teams. But in the end, it was the Auvergnats who came out of it the best and who won at the end of this confrontation at the Marcel Michelin stadium. The Rochelais contenting themselves with a defensive bonus point. The Maritimes find themselves in the depths of the standings, 13th out of 14, just ahead of the Stade Français. A penultimate place that they had never occupied since the comeback in 2014/2015.
The defeat at the opening of the championship against an impressive Stade Toulousain had left some good impressions. Same thing on the second day against Racing. We felt the Maritimes often dominating and capable of reversing the situation. But Saturday against ASM, none of that. Ronan O’Gara, the La Rochelle coach agrees: “We are not in our tempo”, he explained at the end of the meeting. “I’m very disappointed for the players because it’s a group with a lot of character that I love.”
When you lack precision, you don’t deserve to win.
Ronan O’Gara, coach of Stade Rochelais believes that“There was better to do. When you lack precision, you don’t deserve to win. It’s clear to everyone, we released the pressure too easily at certain key moments.”
Ward off bad luck
For Romain Sazy, the third line from La Rochelle, there is no need to worry. “It’s not a non-match, we’re in it. It’s not going away, we’re going to ward off fate next week.”
I know we have a very good group, it will turn.
And the confidence is still there according to him, despite these three defeats and this place at the bottom of the classification, very unusual for La Rochelle. “We have confidence in ourselves. The value of the group, we know it. Having been in it for several seasons, I know that we have a very good group, it will turn out”continued Romain Sazy.
And turn, it goes through a victory next Saturday, September 25 against Biarritz at home. The Basques are having a good start to the season, without complex: they beat Bordeaux and Racing and lost to Perpignan, which allows them to move up to fifth place in the standings. A rank to which we are more used to seeing Stade Rochelais at the start of the season.
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