La Rochelle (AFP)
La Rochelle, stopped for two weeks due to the Covid-19, found both the taste for victory by rolling Bayonne (40-3), Friday evening, and the provisional first place of the Top 14 by opening the 19th day advanced.
Six tries entered, none cashed, the Maritimes led their boat without a shot with a special mention to internationals Pierre Bourgarit and Grégory Alldritt.
The first, author of a hat-trick at the start of the year in Agen, this time stopped at two tries (16th, 40th), bringing his total to eight this season.
The second, forfeit the gathering of the Blues in two days in Nice due to an arthroscanner of the knee planned for the beginning of next week, held his place well, with presence and charges, and also finished with a doubled (62nd, 69th).
Rowing, as he feared during this trip to Charente-Maritime, did not offer much.
Constantly on the decline, Yannick Bru's men held out for a quarter of an hour before their indiscipline - yellow cards for Michael Ruru and André Gorin - and their lack of power penalized them.
For the birthday of their manager Jono Gibbes, the Rochelais have mastered their rugby with effective forwards, at the origin of all their tests.
After Bourgarit and Alldritt, the young scrum-half Thomas Bourgeon also found the opening on a beautiful three-way combination with the pillar Uini Atonio and the second row Rémi Leroux in relay (36th).
On resumption, the yellow and black scrum put his vis-à-vis to death for a penalty try (49th. The addition could have been saltier for the Basques without some clumsiness related to wet weather or a little haste on the part of the locals.
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