La Rochelle dominates Bristol and has a second success in two days of the Champions Cup, enhanced with the offensive bonus (35-7). The Maritimes took the time to build their victory against the co-leader of the Premiership.
Encounter
Investec Champions Cup
La Rochelle
Bristol
All stats and data
La Rochelle, which had reassured itself in Bath at the start of the Champions Cup, offered itself on Saturday evening the other co-leader of the Premiership, Bristol (35-7), bonus as a bonus which allows it to join at the top of the Pool 2 Leinster, expected on January 12 in Deflandre.
The revenge of the revenge will therefore take place in a short month with a major challenge for the Rochelais and the Dubliners: to remain well positioned for the final stages of the spring while avoiding losing too many points so as not to come across Toulouse early, Northampton and Bordeaux-Bègles, their competitors for the title who scored plenty of points.
This is therefore not the case for the Maritimes, who had “only” brought back four points from Bath. Against Bristol, an improved victory was almost imperative from an accounting perspective. There was combat, tension in this clash which the caravel club better mastered by scoring two tries in the first half hour.
The first by his English tightrope winger ? ????
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And as La Rochelle’s defense on Penaltouche was effective and Dillyn Leyds decisive in taking over Benjamin Elizalde (23rd) at the last minute – with an ill-timed attack on the action triggering some friction – we quickly thought of a lone rider from Ronan O’s men ‘Gara.
The enthusiasm of Bristol versus the realism of La Rochelle
Error because Bristol, with its fiery game, is not the best attack in Europe for nothing (36 points on average per match in the league) and Jack Bates took care to remind us of this by winning an aerial duel against Leyds , then slaloming between three Rochelais to finish in the goal (39th, 14-7).
Points evolution graph
La Rochelle wins +28
Time spent in mind
70
Minutes spent in the lead
0
81%
% of match spent in the lead
0%
55%
Possession over the last 10 minutes
45%
7
Points from the last 10 minutes
0
Not enough to curb the maritime enthusiasm, under constant pressure to resume and rewarded by a test from the Fijian darling Levani Botia (51st), then with great courage to cut off a major English counter-attack two minutes later which could have cooled the atmosphere a little more.