Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories La Rochelle boss Ronan O'Gara.James Crombie/INPHO les maritimes Munster meet La Rochelle as ROG's men aim to rise from low ebb Now 10th in the Top 14, La Rochelle hope the Champions Cup revives them. 7.36pm, 3 Apr 2025 Share options THE SHEER COMPETITIVENESS of the Top 14 remains a little underappreciated outside of France. It is a fiendishly difficult league where every weekend presents a different tactical challenge against opponents who are fighting for their lives, either to stay in play-off contention or to avoid the relegation battle. Whereas the Irish provinces speak about finding a new level of intensity in Champions Cup weeks, French clubs have to go to the well every weekend in their league as they either defend their home patch proudly or look for precious points on the road. So it’s worth putting La Rochelle’s struggles in that context. If you were to suddenly supplant Munster into the Top 14, they would find the going tough. Yet with all of that said, Stade Rochelais are far from where they want to be. The club craves a first-ever Top 14 title. Champions Cup crowns in 2022 and 2023 were celebrated wildly by the entire town but the Bouclier de Brennus is the Holy Grail. This season, Ronan O’Gara’s men have been well off the pace in chasing that elusive first French title. They’re currently in 10th position, and while they’re only four match points off the play-off spots [the top six], they’re just 10 points ahead of bottom club Vannes. As pertinently, La Rochelle are 25 match points behind second-placed Bordeaux and a whopping 30 match points adrift of leaders Toulouse. Those are the teams that O’Gara’s men would have planned to be battling for a place in the top two. A top-two finish means going straight into the Top 14 semi-finals, skipping the barrages round that teams from third to sixth have to get through. Last season, La Rochelle finished fifth in the regular season table, so had to travel to Toulon in the barrages round the week before losing to a well-rested Toulouse in the semis. Advertisement Oscar Jégou is a key man in the back row.James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO Saving their Top 14 season will take a serious effort from La Rochelle, whose final six regular-season games include a visit to high-flying Bordeaux. All of that is parked for now because O’Gara and co. are hoping the Champions Cup revives them. It should be a brilliant occasion at Stade Marcel Deflandre on Saturday as Munster visit. It’s undoubtedly special given the connections O’Gara, Donnacha Ryan, Sean Dougall, and Ultan Dillane have with Munster, but the La Rochelle brains trust are more concerned about their team performing at a good enough level. They’ll hope this weekend brings a peak, even if the winner of this tie will probably have to travel to Bordeaux for the quarter-finals, then take on Toulouse in the semis. So while La Rochelle hope for a bounce from this Munster game, it doesn’t seem like they will be able to escape their big rivals from the Top 14. La Rochelle haven’t won since beating a particularly youthful Toulouse team at the Marcel Deflandre on 4 January. Since then, they’ve lost to Leinster, Benetton, Toulon, Lyon, Racing 92, Stade Français, and Clermont, as well as drawing at home to Castres two weekends ago. Overall this season, La Rochelle have played 24 games and lost 13 of them. And by their own admission, their performances haven’t deserved more than 10 wins and one draw. Back in January, they showed more of their old selves in a 16-14 defeat to Leinster and O’Gara spoke about how it was a reminder to his players of their quality. The hope was that it would spark an improvement in form and results, but that hasn’t been the case. Losing key men Grégory Alldritt, Uini Atonio, Paul Boudehent, and Oscar Jégou to France for the Six Nations hasn’t helped with their rhythm, but Toulouse and Bordeaux provide more players to the national squad and haven’t been hugely affected. To be fair to O’Gara and La Rochelle, they haven’t looked for excuses. They’ve been honest about their struggles, but they have seemed as confused as anyone as to why they can’t turn things around. Donnacha Ryan and Ronan O'Gara.James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO They have thrilling new signings to arrive this summer in Nolann le Garrec and Davit Niniashvili but that doesn’t matter right now. Only beating Munster and reviving their Top 14 season does. Even without a couple of injured stars – Jonathan Danty and Boudehent – La Rochelle will feel they have the quality of players to show their class this weekend and begin to turn the page. First-choice hooker Pierre Bourgarit is now back up and running after long-term injury, Atonio remains France’s top tighthead, Will Skelton hasn’t gone anywhere, while Jégou and Alldritt are class in the back row. Ulupano Seuteni is formidable in midfield and there’s back three nous in Dillyn Leyds and Jack Nowell, They’re set to welcome back intelligent, combative scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow this weekend, although neither Antoine Hastoy nor Ihaia West has convincingly nailed down the number 10 shirt. If La Rochelle get to the pitch that O’Gara and co. hope they still have in them, they’ll probably be too good for Munster. But the fact that this is a matter of ‘if’ means Munster fans will travel with more hope than would have been the case in previous seasons. - This article was updated at 8.06pm to correct Donnacha Ryan’s name in the 11th paragraph. Murray Kinsella Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Munster meet La Rochelle as ROG's men aim to rise from low ebb”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “Munster meet La Rochelle as ROG's men aim to rise from low ebb”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. Please give full details of the problem with the comment... This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy before taking part. 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