La Rochelle European champion, the planets align for French rugby – Liberation

Within a handful of seconds, Stade Rochelais would have unwittingly maintained a reputation as a serial loser which, after two lost finals last year (Champions Cup, Top 14), plus a third in 2019 (Challenge European), was beginning to stick dangerously to his crampons. But that was counting without the superb abnegation of a whole group which, contrary to the forecasts, believed in its lucky star until the end, to defeat the Irish ogre of Leinster, in the final of the European Cup, played this Saturday afternoon in an almost full Stade Vélodrome de Marseille (21-24).

An achievement that is certainly authentic, but which, given the 80 minutes played, responds to a real sporting logic, so much so, despite a number of faults committed higher than the average (to the point that it could have proved prohibitive), the Maritimes bent, but never broke, in a recitation as calm as it is methodical of the fable of the Hare and the tortoise which has just led them to the oval roof of the continent, they and their coach… Irish, the ex-fine trigger of Munster and XV of Clover, Ronan O’Gara.

Leinster still countered, uninspired

24-21 in the final gong with three tries scored, against an Irish province always countered and uninspired, reduced to capitalizing on the success at the foot of its scorers. A tremendous job from the forwards allowed the Charentais to never give in, except during the first ten minutes, to Jonathan Sexton and his partners, galvanized by an impressive victory against Toulouse in the semi-finals, who undoubtedly imagined themselves already trying to embroidering on their blue jersey the sixth star which, precisely, would make them the most successful team on the continent. Bernique!, because it was without counting on the irrepressible desire to commute what one would not have failed to call “frustration”, or “guigne”, in panache, like the choice, in second half-time and when the score was unfavorable to them, to try to score a try, at all costs, rather than nibbling the delay taken from the start, by taking the points on foot. However, La Rochelle was playing in numerical inferiority, following an anti-game fault (a trip from the second line, Thomas Lavault) that a fatal outcome would have allowed us to qualify as unforgivable at this level.

But the indiscipline, however real, did not annihilate the spirit of conquest of a group which, like Ihaia West, its opener/scorer so often mocked for having failed in this kind of context, definitely wanted to demonstrate that, now regularly present in the French and European inner circle, he well deserved, and this time for the best reasons in the world, to“go to the port and put your head upside down”as will be claimed with all the ingenuity of his 24 years, the scrum half, Thomas Berjon, among other symbols of a youth with irrepressible enthusiasm that he ended up sending an Irish squad to the bottom imagining that the experience would be enough to get him out of the trap.

Fifteen months before the World Cup

So that the 27th European final returns to La Rochelle and that no one thinks of debining a competition which, born in the midst of a pandemic, had been the subject of all criticism with its unprecedented formula where, in the group stage, several matches had to be cancelled, some declared lost on the green carpet by the “contaminated” team and others decreed “void” according to criteria so opaque that many voices had even judged the event distorted, if not discredited. But of all this, there is fortunately no longer any question when greeting a winner who, it should be remembered, had already beaten last year (at home, to Marcel Deflandre), Leinster who will therefore have had the memory short.

La Rochelle European champions (even if, in rugby, international competition would only be based on a small half-dozen opponents, Irish provinces and English clubs combined), in the wake of Toulouse, in 2021 (and, formerly of Toulon and Brive), the domination of tricolor rugby does not suffer any challenge this year, after, Friday evening in the same place, the Franco-French final of the European Challenge (the “small” test) which, another surprise, allowed Lyon to dominate Toulon (30-12), and of course, the coronation of the XV of France winning at the end of the winter, after twelve years of scarcity, the 6 Nations Tournament with a Grand Slam at the key. From there to conclude that the planets continue to align fifteen months before the next World Cup organized on French soil …