Penaud scored in Bordeaux's win over La Rochelle
Damian Penaud embarrassed his France teammate Gregory Alldritt with a try her scored for club Bordeaux on Saturday.
Bordeaux turned over the ball in their half of the pitch and won a penalty. They decided to tap it and kick upfield with Penaud charging after the ball. It landed in the in-goal area and La Rochelle’s Alldritt made it to the ball before Penaud. However, he did not kick it out of play or pick it up.
Read more: La Rochelle play-off hopes in doubt
Penaud did not stop his run and he dove to touch the ball down to score.
There’s no such thing as a lost cause!
Penaud with the opportunistic try his performance deserved!
— Paul Eddison (@pauleddison) May 11, 2024
The try was reminiscent of Rob Howley’s try in the 2004 Cup final where Wasps won the trophy. Howley kicked a grubber through and Toulouse’s Clement Poitrenaud took too long to deal with the ball and Howley dotted down.
La Rochelle’s head coach Ronan O’Gara seemed to reference Alldritt’s incident in his post-match press conference.
“Were were punished by certain players who have crucial responsibilities in this team, I will not give names,” he said.
Bordeaux won the game 34-14 and it has seen La Rochelle’s prospects of making the Top 14 play-off spots. They are currently in sixth but face two hard opponents in their final regular season games in Toulouse and Racing 92.
La Rochelle are currently on 56 points but a possible six clubs could supplant them in the play-off spot.
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.
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