La Rochelle: Flamboyant merchant, Skelton makes a mistake… the Tops and the Flops

TOPS

Julien Marchand, model captain of the Red and Black

What a start to the season for Julien Marchand! The key player in the success in Vannes last weekend, the Toulouse captain delivered another XXL performance against Stade Rochelais on Sunday (35-27). Ruthless in defense and author of two scrapes, the hooker also proved valuable offensively with 30 meters covered with the ball in hand. Precise in touch and in winning the balls carried, despite a forward pass committed in the first half, Julien Marchand is walking on water at the start of the season and Peato Mauvaka will have a hard time (re)coming to dislodge him when he returns from injury.

Also readTop 14: Toulouse new leader after an epic clash

Ernest-Wallon, impregnable fortress

Toulouse’s fine run has lasted for 33 games. Since the winter of 2022 and a setback suffered against Racing 92, Stade Toulousain has been master in its Ernest-Wallon lair where it has not lost a single match. Pushed around by the valiant Rochelais, whose bench made the difference after the break, Ugo Mola’s men have trembled somewhat but continue their impressive unbeaten run at home. Caught cold by a try from Teddy Thomas against the run of play (18th), the Red and Blacks were able to turn the situation around in the space of two minutes thanks to tries from Pita Ahki (23rd) then Thibaud Flament (25th), before Pierre-Louis Barassi came to make the score heavier just after the siren (40th + 1), after resisting five Rochelais defenders. Despite a fifteen-minute lull where they conceded a stinging 15-3 defeat against the new blood of the Maritimes, Julien Marchand’s teammates managed to turn the match to their advantage in the last quarter of an hour and were rewarded by a powerful try from their colossus Emmanuel Meafou (67th). After its bonus success in Vannes, Stade Toulousain therefore followed up against La Rochelle (35-27) and already took the lead in the Top 14 (the ranking here).

Seuteni-Thomas, O Gara’s almost winning bet

It was a choice that intrigued many observers when they discovered the starting XV for La Rochelle. Repositioned in the centre of the Maritimes attack, alongside Ulupano Seuteni, Teddy Thomas more than succeeded in his debut. As proof, the usual winger scored twice by displaying a nascent complementarity with his partner in the centre, who provided him with two offerings, including a wonderful chistera, to go to dam (18th, 55th). He finished the match with 81 metres covered with the ball in his hands (highest total of the match), three crossings and six defenders beaten. Often criticised for his defensive largesse, Teddy Thomas did not fail in this sector throughout the match. The only black spot was his injury on the last action where he seemed to have torn his hamstring, after having delivered a brilliant ruckus to Romain Ntamack.

FLOPS

Skelton’s yellow weighs down the Rochelais

This is undoubtedly the turning point of the match. While the Maritimes managed to regain the advantage on the scoreboard in the 56th minute (25-27), after a one-sided start to the second half where Aleksandre Kuntelia in force (51st) and Teddy Thomas all in speed (55th) went to flatten in the in-goal area, they will pay cash for their blatant indiscipline, marked by fifteen penalties over the entire match. For a succession of repeated fouls in the 22 meters, Will Skelton is sanctioned with a yellow card for the entire work of his partners (62nd). During their period of numerical inferiority, they conceded a prohibitive 10 to 0 which came to annihilate their hopes of victory on Toulouse soil or at least of a defensive bonus.

Maritimes miss their first act

The walls of the La Rochelle locker room shook at half-time, under the anger of Ronan O’Gara captured by the Canal+ cameras. Cornered in their own half for almost the entire first half, Grégory Aldritt’s teammates repeatedly got themselves into difficulty all by themselves, unable to get free or dropping easy balls. The two-time reigning French champions weren’t asking for much but also showed clumsiness in the final move to widen the gap on the scoreboard. If La Rochelle managed to take the lead against the run of play, thanks to Teddy Thomas (18th), it was Toulouse who went into the locker room with a substantial twelve-point advantage (22-10), thanks to their three tries scored (see above). The La Rochelle staff took matters into their own hands and decided to make six changes as soon as they returned from the locker room with the arrivals of Kuntelia, Bourgarit and Penverne in the front row, Dillane and Skelton in the second row and finally Boudehent in the third row. A large turnover that woke up their players, who had a flamboyant start to the second half, which saw them go from 22-10 to 25-27 between the 40th and 56th minutes.