There are only two rounds of the regular season to go
La Rochelle may not make the Top 14 play-offs after they lost to Bordeaux on Saturday.
Bordeaux, who are third in the table, hosted the game and beat their rivals 34-14. This meant La Rochelle stay in sixth place with six other teams able to knock them out of the spot in the final two rounds of the regular season.
Related: Making of La Rochelle
The top six currently are: Toulouse, Stade Francais, Bordeaux, Toulon, Racing 92 and La Rochelle. Ronan O’Gara’s outfit have two tricky games to finish the regular season with Toulouse and Racing 92. If they do not pick up any points from those a number of clubs are ready to pounce on their play-off place.
La Rochelle are currently on 56 points. Seventh-place Pau have 55, eighth Castres have 54, ninth Perpignan have 53 and 10th Clermont have 51.
In the French league clubs have to finish in the top six to make the play-offs. The teams from third to six then play one another with the winners taking on the teams who finished first and second. The victors in that game then go head-to-head in the final.
The loss at the weekend has added a blow to their title hopes and O’Gara was brutally honest in his post-match assessments. He was asked about an error made by Gregory Alldritt. The France international ran after a kicked ball which landed in the in-goal area for Bordeaux. He wasn’t aware of Damian Penaud striding after it and did not get rid of the ball. Penaud then touched the ball first to score.
O’Gara said: “We were punished by players who have crucial responsibilities in this team. I will not give names.”
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