La Rochelle 7
Ulster 3
THE TENSION ROSE and rose as the swirling rain continued to come down in La Rochelle. Ulster were within seconds of a huge win away to the reigning champions, a victory that would arrest their worrying recent slide.
But it was heartbreak for Dan McFarland and his players as les Rochelais scored with the clock in the red, battering over through replacement prop Joel Sclavi to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.
The Stade Marcel-Deflandre was rocking throughout and while Ulster delivered a battling performance in horrendous conditions, this ultimately means the northern province have lost six times in their last seven games.
It’s three losses from three in Europe but McFarland’s men aren’t completely dead and buried yet having picked up a losing bonus point tonight. If they can beat Sale back in Belfast next weekend, they could still go through to the Round-of-16 depending on other results.
Sclavi’s late, late try told us plenty about Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle. They were missing key players like Will Skelton and Uini Atonio, while their display wasn’t particularly excellent, but they found a way under huge pressure in the dying moments.
Trailing to Nathan Doak’s 63rd-minute penalty, they refused to give up on rescuing this game and so they did with a muscular final drive in which Donnacha Ryan’s pack delivered to the utter delight of the brilliant home crowd.
The Marcel-Deflandre is a special place and it lived up to its reputation with a throbbing atmosphere that was as relentless as the rain. It’s easy to see why O’Gara and Ryan love this place.
As dismayed Ulster trudged off after the final whistle, the words of Sweet Caroline bounced around the stadium telling us that “Good times never seemed so good” but for Ulster, these bad times have never been so heartbreaking.
They nearly, nearly did enough to end their horror run of results but La Rochelle showed why they are a champion team. For Ulster, this will be a difficult pill to swallow.
The teams were locked at 0-0 for half time after an absorbing battle of a first half in the torrential rain. With handling so difficult, the error count was high but both sides dug in physically.
Ulster enjoyed much more of the territory and had several visits into La Rochelle’s 22 but they couldn’t come up with a first-half score. Ian Madigan was wide with a long-range penalty attempt after La Rochelle’s Antoine Hastoy had hit the post with his own shot, but most frustrating for Ulster was a period of pressure that lasted around seven minutes soon before the break.
Four times, they tried to maul their way over. The first time, the TMO confirmed that Nick Timoney had knocked-on as he surged for the line, so referee Nika Amashukeli went back to the penalty advantage he had been playing and then sin-binned La Rochelle flanker Paul Boudehent for side entry on the second Ulster maul attempt.
The third time, there was another penalty advantage playing off the maul when Ulster thought wing Rob Lyttle might have won the race to a bobbling ball to score only for the TMO check to show that Jacob Stockdale had knocked-on just before.
And finally, as Ulster drove forward after again kicking into the left corner, La Rochelle’s seven-man pack produced a huge maul turnover to life the siege. McFarland’s men were left empty-handed after exerting huge effort.
There was another miss in the 22 for Ulster soon after the break too, with Nathan Doak knocking the ball on. Ian Madigan’s angry reaction to Doak being tackled just after the whistle handed La Rochelle a penalty and an easy exit.
The home side then gained more momentum with the first scrum penalty of the evening in the 49th minute, tighthead prop Georges Henri Colombe and replacement loosehead Joel Sclavi earning their curst, but Ulster skipper Iain Henderson picked off the ensuing lineout.
The respite was brief, with Stewart Moore pinged for not rolling away from a tackle and La Rochelle kicking the penalty down the left into Ulster’s 22. Again, Henderson came up with the goods as La Rochelle’s forwards battered to within a few metres, the Ulster captain earning a breakdown turnover penalty.
Sub wing Raymond Rhule then knocked-on a low Ulster kick to give the visitors a foothold in La Rochelle’s half. Tighthead prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen earned a penalty at the subsequent scrum and suddenly Ulster were kicking into the right corner. There was familiar frustration, however, as the outstanding Alldritt pounced for a breakdown steal.
Finally, in the 64th minute we had the first points of the game as Amashukeli awarded Ulster a scrum penalty that drew hearty protests from the La Rochelle fans. Doak stepped up to hammer his kick between the posts into the swirling rain.
La Rochelle responded strongly as centre Jule Favre won back a hanging kick, then grubbered through a couple of phases later, forcing Mike Lowry into his in-goal area and handing the hosts a five-metre scrum.
Fullback Brice Dulin then went close over in the right corner only to be denied by Stockdale, but penalty advantage had been playing and La Rochelle opted for the scrum again rather than knocking over three points.
The scrum yielded another two penalties for La Rochelle in the next few minutes, the pressure building and building on Ulster as Amashukeli gave them a warning to fix the set-piece issues.
McFarland sent on Andy Warwick – predominantly a loosehead but covering tighthead here – and remarkably, Ulster won a penalty at that next scrum. It was Eric O’Sullivan over on Ulster’s loosehead side who got the call after he and Colombe went to ground. A huge moment for Ulster that seemed to indicate it was going to be their night.
La Rochelle were back in the Ulster 22 with five minutes of the contest remaining but a crooked lineout throw lifted the pressure this time.
But there was to be one more chance from another five-metre lineout. After his pack had battered and battered against tired Ulster bodies, Sclavi smashed over to win it.
Stade Rochelais scorers:
Tries: Joel Sclavi
Conversions: Antoine Hastoy [1 from 1]
Penalties: Antoine Hastoy [0 from 1]
Ulster scorers:
Penalties: Nathan Doak [1 from 1], Ian Madigan [0 from 1]
STADE ROCHELAIS: Brice Dulin; Teddy Thomas (Raymond Rhule ’40), UJ Seuteni, Jules Favre, Pierre Boudehent; Antoine Hastoy, Thomas Berjon (Tawera Kerr-Barlow ’40); Thierry Paiva (Joel Sclavi ’10), Samuel Lagrange (Alexandre Kuntelia ’66), Georges Henri Colombe; Ultan Dillane (Romain Sazy ’62), Remi Picquette (Thomas Lavault ’75); Remi Bourdeau, Paul Boudehent (yellow card ’33), Grégory Alldritt (captain).
ULSTER: Michael Lowry; Rob Lyttle, Stewart Moore, Luke Marshall (Ben Moxham ’27), Jacob Stockdale; Ian Madigan, Nathan Doak; Rory Sutherland (Eric O’Sullivan ’62), Rob Herring (John Andrew ’66), Jeff Toomaga-Allen (Andy Warwick ’71); Alan O’Connor, Kieran Treadwell (Harry Sheridan ’58); Iain Henderson (captain) (David McCann ’62), Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.
Replacements not used: Michael McDonald, Ethan McIlroy
Referee: Nika Amashukeli [Georgia].
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