La Rochelle – Leinster (14-16): the Maritimes narrowly fail in the clash against the Irish in the Champions Cup

It’s a shock that has become a classic of this Champions Cup. And for the third time in just over a year, he again switched to Leinster. Like last season, the Irish, finalists of the last three editions of the competition, came to win (14-16) Sunday in the lair of La Rochelle for the top of this group B, resisting the final pushes of Grégory Alldritt and his own. A setback which undoubtedly kills any hope of the Maritimes of finishing in the lead and offering themselves a clearer picture in the final phase.

The remake of the 2022 and 2023 finals was dense, physical and hooked until the end, very far from the scenario of the quarter-final largely won (40-13) by the Leinstermen in April in Dublin. It was not an afternoon of sitting in the stands of Marcel-Deflandre to watch crazy combinations, but of gritting one’s teeth in the face of the shocks and the harshness of the battle. La Rochelle started strong, invested the Leinster camp, but was only paid by six points in the first period. More realistically, the Irish took the lead at the break and with a try (30th) via their second line Joe McCarthy.

Hastoy misses himself at the end

La Rochelle stalled, and we felt that victory was gradually slipping away for the double European champions. But the Maritimes came back with a try from their South African winger Dillyn Leyds, served by a magnificent kick from their fly half Antoine Hastoy (66th). But in the process, the latter missed his transformation, leaving his team behind in the attack in the last quarter of an hour.

And if the Irish let six points slip away, the failures of the French international, blunted at the end of the match, deprived La Rochelle of a victory at the finish. First with this penalty of more than 50 m in the axis (80th), crashing into the bottom of the Leinster post. Then with this drop attempt in stoppage time, not very convincing and blocked.