FROM THE HEIGHTS of winning the European Champions Cup last week, La Rochelle are back to earth this weekend, knowing that they must win their final regular season Top 14 game against Lyon to guarantee their passage to the play-offs.
Montpellier, Bordeaux Begles and Castres have already stamped their tickets, while Toulouse, who are sixth, should be too strong at home for relegated Biarritz.
That leaves La Rochelle as one of five who are vying for one of the other two places.
The top two in the standings will go directly into the semi-finals with the teams finishing third to sixth going through a first play-off.
Ronan O’Gara’s team is currently fourth with 67 points, one ahead of Toulouse and just five ahead of ninth-placed Clermont.
To make life more awkward, they travel to Lyon, four points behind in eighth, who are themselves on a tremendous roll having blown Toulon away last Friday to win the European Challenge Cup.
The celebrations in both camps have been cut short to prepare for Sunday’s unofficial ‘European Supercup’.
“A few boys have lost their voices from the singing but we are back in training. Back to normality,” La Rochelle’s forwards coach Donnacha Ryan told AFP.
“We have to refocus on Lyon straight away because it’s a big game. The Top 14 is such a tough league and Lyon themselves had a fantastic result on Friday.”
Like most sides at the dog end of the season, La Rochelle have a lengthy injury list with backs Brice Dulin, Dylan Leyds and Jonathan Danty as well as flanker Wiaan Liebenberg all absent in Lyon after being injured against Leinster.
“We have to get something out of the game this weekend to make sure we are in the top six because the top eight, nine teams have been very tight for the majority of the season,” said Ryan.
“They (Lyon) are a different opponent to the one we had last weekend but at the same time they are full of confidence.
“Hopefully we will use the momentum we had last week to put a performance in this weekend.”
Clermont face the toughest task as they host leaders Montpellier, knowing that realistically then need a bonus point worth five points to have any hope of progressing.
The other mighty match-up sees Racing 92 (5th, 66pts) hosting Toulon (7th, 64pts) with the winner sure to progress. A Toulon defeat would also mark the final bow for former Italy captain Sergio Parisse, 38, who has intimated he is retiring at the end of the season.
With all of the matches kicking off at 9.05pm local time, there are certain to be many tense moments before the night is out.
“Someone will be looking at the other results, keeping us informed,” said Ryan. “But we can only really focus on getting our own stuff in order and get the job done at the weekend.”
Top 14 fixtures:
[all matches Sunday 8.05pm Irish time/9.05pm local time]
Clermont v Montpellier, Lyon v La Rochelle, Pau v Castres, Perpignan v Bordeaux Begles, Racing 92 v Toulon, Stade Francais v Brive, Toulouse v Biarritz
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