A downbeat Ronan O’Gara reached for scant optimism as he insisted he was ‘proud’ of his players after ‘low-point’ La Rochelle slipped to a 43-33 defeat against Montpellier, their fifth in a row in all competitions and their fourth this season in front of their home fans.
Serving the first week of an FFR-extended ban for his red card in the Top 14 match at Pau on November 30, O’Gara could only watch from high in the stands at Marcel Deflandre as his side, missing 19 players to injury and with Davit Niniashvili playing at centre for the first time in his professional career, shipped more than 40 points at home for the second match in a row.
“It’s a cycle in sport that comes after great years,” he said afterwards. “We’re at a low point now.” But he insisted: “You see the character of the players. It’s not defeatist to say that I’m proud of them. They tried, they gave everything.
“There’s a gap between Montpellier and us today, but it will serve us well in future. Unfortunately, we’re judged on the present, and that’s not enough for the players, the fans, or the staff.
“You have to congratulate Montpellier — a good team, solid, pragmatic. It’s frustrating, but not as frustrating as many other defeats.”
The match started well enough for the Rochelais, as they raced into a 10-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes.
But the patient visitors worked their way back into the game courtesy of Domingo Miotti, who scored all their first-half points, to go in at the break level at 16-16.
Montpellier’s power upfront told in the second half, as backrows Marco Tauleigne and Alexander Masibaka, and hooker Christopher Tolofua all scored in a 20-minute spell to take the game away from the hosts.
Back from injury, France international Paul Boudehent scored twice for the home side late in the game. But that molecule-thin veneer was never going to be enough to hide La Rochelle’s current woes. They’re stuck in 10th place, level on points with Lyon, and six adrift of the play-off places.
Captain Gregory Alldritt said La Rochelle had to get used to being ‘an average team in the Top 14 … an outsider’ again.
“Perhaps that’s what we need,” he went on, “to accept this role and free ourselves from [talk of the] top six, from qualifying, to try to show our best face every weekend.”
As bad as things currently are at La Rochelle, they’re arguably worse at Bayonne, where the pressure is mounting on manager Gregory Patat. The Basque side have yet to win in 2026, and dropped to 12th in the table with their sixth defeat on the bounce — and their second in a row at home in the Top 14 after Castres ended their 21-match winning run two weeks ago — as they went down 36-41 to a much-improved Racing 92.
Juita Wainiqolo scored a hat-trick in the opening seven minutes and 23 seconds of Lyon’s 11-try 73-12 victory over basement side Montauban. He could have had two more, but boosted his stats with a couple of try assists, claiming with a smile later that he was ‘too shy to score five’.
Gibson Popoali’i, on his Top 14 debut for the visitors, was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Sam Simmonds moments before Wainiqolo scored his first with barely a minute on the clock.
Salesi Rayasi and Damian Penaud both scored twice as Bordeaux beat Castres 57-32 in an entertaining end-to-end match that was, despite the final scoreline, still in the balance a minute from time. Between then and the final whistle, the hosts scored twice to claim the attacking bonus at the end of a 13-try encounter.
Clermont’s Lucas Zamora scored his first two Top 14 tries as they beat Toulon 14-34 at Stade Mayol to condemn Pierre Mignoni’s side to a first home defeat in 22 matches.
High winds prompted authorities to call off Saturday afternoon’s match between Perpignan and Pau, two days after Storm Nils ripped out the posts at one end of Stade Aime Giral. The match will be replayed on Sunday, February 22.
Stade Francais host Toulouse in Sunday’s internationals-absent ‘Classico’. Fullback Leo Barre, called up to France’s 42-player squad for Italy next weekend, is slated to start for the Parisians, while Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn turns out for the visitors.
