La Rochelle player ratings: La Rochelle demonstrated why they are two-time Champions Cup winners, showing composure and grit in a hard-fought 24-20 away victory.
Ronan O'Gara has laid to rest any concerns that he may rest some of his La Rochelle stars for their opening match of the Investec Champions Cup by naming a formidable outfit to run out at Bath's Rec on Friday.
The World Rugby U20 Championship has a proven pedigree as a breeding ground for Test stars of the future, with close to 1,000 players using the competition as a stepping stone to higher honours since the first tournament was held in 2008.
Ahead by a single point at the break after riding their luck at times during an edgy opening half, Mark Mapletoft’s dynamos took ample advantage of the yellow carding of Mathis Castro-Ferreira.
Four times he has flown south from France in the last 13 months, his involvement at the 2023 and 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship sandwiching the trips he made in December and April with La Rochelle in the Champions Cup.
The French, who are chasing a fourth successive world title in a row, swatted aside New Zealand 55-31 in their semi-final last Sunday.
France versus New Zealand was a spicy rematch last Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship. The French, the defending three-in-a-row champions from 2018, 2019 and 2023, hadn’t liked it one bit that they were pipped by the Baby Blacks in a pool game 10 days earlier in Stellenbosch.
Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town began with a blue sky, quite the contrast to match day there’s brutal weather, and it stayed dry, encouraging teams to give it a lash.
Beaten 26-27 by an 80th-minute Baby Blacks penalty in a July 4 pool match in Stellenbosch, the French only reached the last four as the tournament’s best runner-up across the three pools courtesy of last Tuesday’s victory over Wales.