the false team composition of an eighth division club which announced the arrival of… Teddy Iribaren

La Rochelle and its international scrum half Teddy Iribaren announced on Tuesday that they had, by mutual agreement, immediately ended the contract which bound them until 2026. Iribaren, 34, had joined Charente-Maritime in 2023 from of Racing 92 where he spent six seasons and participated in two lost Champions Cup finals against Leinster in 2018 and Exeter in 2020. With La Rochelle, the French international (a selection against Australia in 2021) played 20 matches in a season and a half, including 8 as a starter. Lately, Iribaren was no longer part of the plans of the double European champion.

Ronan O’Gara returned to this departure at a press conference: “It was a difficult decision for everyone, no one wins. It’s a manager’s choice, we don’t have the same vision. I was the one who recruited Teddy, it was a difficult time for both of us. This is the first – and I hope the last – time it’s happened like this. He has a lot of qualities but when the vision is not aligned, it’s difficult.”

But the scrum half did not take long to find a new base since he will play a match on Sunday with the Rugby Athletic Club Angérien (Raca), based in Saint Jean-d’Angély in Charente-Maritime, no far from La Rochelle. He will start on the substitutes’ bench against US Saintes in Regional 1 (formerly called the French Honor Championship), the eighth division of French rugby. It remains to be seen whether this is a one-off freelance before finding another club or whether Iribaren will finish the season with Raca. None of that… It was actually a joke by the club who later published their real team line-up. And who will have succeeded in making people talk about him.

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