Agen (AFP)

La Rochelle closed the first leg on Saturday with a new major success in Agen (43-13) which allowed it to take the lead in the middle of the championship and to position itself as a real candidate for Brennus.

There was no photo between the maritime leader, concerned, determined, who confirmed his good dispositions, and the red lantern from Agen who had the merit of scoring the first and the last try of this match without suspense, marked by a treble from Pierre Bourgarit and a double from Grégory Alldritt.

In total, for their third victory of the season out of Marcel-Deflandre, Jono Gibbes' men have reached the promised land of their hosts, still fanny, six times in this championship, leaving little room for the weak.

If the SUA had deluded almost half time at Racing 92 before exploding last week, it only lasted a quarter of an hour this time, the time for the La Rochelle machine to adjust and reach the break with already the offensive bonus in its purse (8-29).

The good start of the players of Régis Sonnes was rewarded by a try from Paul Abadie on a nice interior delivery from Jean-Marcelin Buttin (4th), followed by a penalty from Raphaël Lagarde (8-0) which woke up the leader.

On a penalty, Bourgarit rewarded the work of his family (14th), as he will do two other times (34th, 40th + 1) after seeing Wiian Liebenberg score after a scrum at five meters (21st).

The lone rider of the yellow and black continued after the break with a double from Captain Alldritt on two penalties, a fashionable weapon of the day in Armandie, before the international partners put themselves in management and rotation mode, barely upset by the test of honor scored by Lagarde (78th) who barely masked the abyssal gap between these two formations.

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