This week’s analysis article from Sam Larner will be focused on La Rochelle’s solid start to their European Champions Cup pool campaign.
Only three teams have had the perfect start to the Champions Cup; Leinster, Saracens and, somewhat surprisingly, Stade Rochelais. The club are based in La Rochelle, a town midway up the west coast of France, away from the heartland of rugby in the south west or the two Parisian clubs.
Up until 2010 Stade Rochelais hadn’t played in the Top 14 but they had been throwing their weight around towards the top of the Pro D2 for a number of years. In 2010 they reached the peak, only to be sent immediately back down after a difficult year. This forced them to make significant changes and bring in the ‘Growing Together 2015’ initiative which wanted to achieve the following:
* A stadium with over 15,000 seats
* A budget of 15 million euros
* More capital
* A professional team with 30% club trained players
All of that was achieved and when they beat Agen in the 2013/14 Pro D2 final they emerged once more into the rarified air of the Top 14 and have stayed there ever since. They achieved mid-table mediocrity the following year, and the year after that, finishing ninth on exactly 54 points both seasons. They weren’t content to stay at that level though and they blew away the opposition last year to tack on an extra 31 points and finish seven points ahead of second place, and eventual champions, Clermont. This season, they remain in the hunt for the title, just five points behind surprise leaders Lyon. But, they also have Champions Cup rugby for the first time in their history and they are taking to it pretty well.
So how have they done so well in the Top 14 and, most importantly, the Champions Cup this year? One key statistic which jumps out for both competitions is their ability to score from first phase. The average in the Top 14 is for 40 percent of all tries to come in the first phase, Stade Rochelais score 50 percent of theirs after that length of possession, which is the joint highest in the league.
A stat, which is possibly linked, is that they have the second best ability at not allowing first phase tries, just 25 percent of conceded tries come this way, Toulouse lead the pack with 20 percent however. Oyonnax, astonishingly, have scored just a single try from first phase but conceded 14, 56 percent of their total tries. The average in the Champions Cup is 42 percent, it’s important to remember that each team has only played two games, but still Stade Rochelais are smashing the average with 56 percent, the third highest amongst teams who have scored at least five tries. Interestingly, although Northampton’s defence has been poor, they have been exactly average in first phase defence, where they have suffered is in phases 7+, they have conceded five tries this way, the most in the tournament. Glasgow Warriors are great at first phase defense, just 14 percent, or one, of their conceded tries have come this way but more than half have come at the 7+ phase mark.
This is the first Champions Cup try for La Rochelle. Straight from the lineout, there’s a nice tight drive and the ball is so far from a Quins player that the try is never in doubt. You could make the claim that the scrum-half, Alexi Bales, does join in front of the ball and interferes with Chris Robshaw. However, it’s not a surprise that they scored from a lineout, only Montpellier have scored a greater number of Top 14 tries from the lineout this year, 16 vs 11.
Sometimes, you don’t need to be a great team to score a try from first phase. In the above example, and the alternative view below, Stade Rochelais score because of some fairly abject defending by Marcus Smith and Danny Care. As Ryan Lamb drifts across the pitch, Care comes with him and funnels him towards Smith, but Care can’t make the tackle and has Smith continues drifting, Lamb just straightens up and then it’s just an easy two on one to get by Tim Visser. This might be more the fault of the Quins than superb attacking by La Rochelle, however, the key to attacking efficiency is support play and, although centre Geoffrey Doumayrou ends up with the try, it could have gone into the hands of at least two others.
La Rochelle have scored 26 tries in the Top 14 and only ten of those have started from within the opposition 22. Eight have started from their own half and eight have started from between the 22 and the half, both are league high totals. As much as the pack may look like an undiscovered tribe who have escaped from Game of Thrones, they are far from a one dimensional team.
If we move to the Ulster game at the Stade Marcel Deflandre, we’ll see another try from first phase, this time off a turnover. The French side are not prolific scorers from turnovers, they’ve only done it twice in the Top 14 this year, but the same principles apply as they did from the scrum. When Levani Botia picks up the ball in the midfield there is immediately a sea of black and yellow and, although wing Jeremy Sinzelle ends up with the try, it could have been four other players.
La Rochelle are locked with Castres and Bordeaux at the top of the French league in tries scored from a kick return, with four and it’s easy to see why. For a kick return to be successful, you need to break through the initial wall of defenders who are chasing. Once you are through that, you are then faced with broken field and the support runners become much more important. Look at how, as soon as Gabriel Lacroix is through the initial defenders, his support runners take off after him like sprinters from the blocks. Again, Victor Vito is the one left holding the ball but the options are plenty. One thing to note, Uini Atonio is on the ten-metre line when Lacroix breaks through, when the camera pans back up around 30 metres downfield, he is only 5m closer to the Ulster line. He’s a prop who knows exactly how much he needs to work.
In this final example, Stade Rochelais lose the ball very close to the Ulster line and then immediately turn it over. There’s not much finesse to it and as Ulster crowd in to try and win the ball back the short side opens up and it’s easy pickings for the captain Jason Eaton.
Conclusion
The Quins away and Ulster at home are probably the two easiest games that this side could have had to open up their European campaign, so it’s important to note that. However, the complete domination they showed against Ulster and casual attacking flair they brought to west London shows that this is a serious team who will be taking a very real shot at this competition. We know that loose kicks are punished, we know that giving away penalties which let them kick to the corner will punish you, now it is up to Wasps to work out how they can get a handle on Stade Rochelais and somehow stop them running wild at first phase.
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