Bath v La Rochelle: Five takeaways as French outfit’s forward power ‘sets the tone’ in important triumph

Following La Rochelle’s 24-20 triumph over Bath, here are our five takeaways from the Champions Cup opener at the Recreation Ground on Friday.

The top line

Although this match was played in atrocious weather at the Recreation Ground, with heavy rain and a strong wind prominent throughout, both these teams deserve credit for still making it an entertaining spectacle.

Despite Finn Russell giving Bath an early lead via a penalty, La Rochelle soon took control of proceedings with their bulky forwards laying an excellent platform for their backline.

The French outfit were led brilliantly by their captain Gregory Alldritt and it wasn’t long before they erased Bath’s early lead via a try from Oscar Jegou. They continued to impress despite the trying conditions as they kept it tight amongst their forwards and were rewarded with further tries from Reda Wardi and Tawera Kerr-Barlow which gave them a 21-6 lead at half-time.

While Bath launched an impressive fightback in the second half and came to within a point of the visitors – thanks to tries from Tom Gunn and Quinn Roux – La Rochelle’s superb first half display was enough to get them over the line.

La Rochelle’s forward power sets the tone

From the outset, the visitors played the conditions superbly as their forwards ran roughshod over their counterparts during the first half with the likes of Alldritt and Will Skelton leading the way.

They caught the eye with their outstanding physicality and La Rochelle laid down a marker in the 27th minute when Wardi crossed for a try off the back of a lineout drive from 20 metres out.

That score set the tone for the rest of the match as La Rochelle held an edge in most of the tight exchanges as this game progressed. Five minutes after Wardi’s try, they launched another attack from a lineout on Bath’s five-metre line and caught their opponents by surprise.

This, when Kerr-Barlow glided through a gaping hole in Bath’s defence when the home side thought their opponents would launch another drive off the set-piece but instead they opted to play quickly to the former All Blacks scrum-half.

Bath’s ill-discipline proves costly

While La Rochelle deserve plenty of credit for securing this result, Bath were their own worst enemy as their discipline let them down badly and their head of rugby Johann van Graan will be forgiven if he reads them the riot act after the match.

The home side were particularly poor at the breakdown, where they were penalised regularly with an experienced player like Tom Dunn one of the main culprits as he conceded several unnecessary penalties.

One of those was for a dangerous croc roll on Alldritt when Bath were chasing the game. He was also punished for a breakdown offence, while Bath were also blown up for infringing at a ruck immediately after they narrowed the gap to a point with Roux’s try midway through the second half.

There are some definite work-ons for Van Graan at training this week if Bath want to bounce back in their next match at Benetton next week.

Ronan O’Gara’s rant has the desired effect

After suffering a shock defeat to bottom-placed Vannes in the Top 14 at their Marcel-Deflandre home last week, La Rochelle head coach O’Gara lashed out at his players in the media.

It was La Rochelle’s fifth defeat in 11 league matches and the former Ireland fly-half questioned his players’ “commitment, appetite and will”. Well, O’Gara’s rant certainly had the desired effect as his players delivered a superb all-round performance.

They were focused from the kick-off and it must not be forgotten that Bath came into this fixture high on confidence as they are sitting pretty at the top of the Premiership standings.

Despite that, La Rochelle were clinical in their execution and this result could rejuvenate their season.

Gregory Alldritt shows his class

While we’ve already covered La Rochelle’s defeat to Vannes on their home patch, it must be pointed out that they were without their talismanic captain Alldritt in that encounter.

However, the France number eight was back in action in their Champions Cup opener and his presence certainly played its part in helping his team to clinch an important victory.

The 27-year-old caught the eye with an outstanding all-round performance in which he took the fight to his opponents with his superb ball carrying ability, resilient defence and an energetic display at the breakdown.

Added to that, Alldritt also impressed with his leadership skills as he kept a cool head under pressure in the final quarter when his decision-making proved crucial after Bath narrowed the gap to a point.

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