Rugby: Top 14 and Champions Cup, "the staff has decided to play both tables", says the president of La Rochelle

Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin 21:43 p.m., April 10, 2023, modified at 21:43 p.m., April 10, 2023

The Stade Rochelais does not do things by halves. Winners of Saracens, currently first in the English championship, this weekend in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup, Ronan O'Gara's men are once again in the last four of the most prestigious European rugby competition. Exceptional guest of Europe 1 Sport (every evening from 20 pm to 23 pm), Vincent Merling, the president of La Rochelle has been ambitious and intends to play on both tables until the end of the season: the Top 14 championship and the Champions Cup.

"The staff and the players decided to play both sides. They have the responsibility of this double objective in a personal capacity, "he said at the microphone of Lionel Rosso. A year after his historic victory, and surprise against the Irish of Leinster, in the final of the most prestigious of European competitions, Vincent Merling hopes to repeat this feat. For the president of La Rochelle, "playing both tables is something very complicated. We need the squad for but we are hopeful and we play for it." La Rochelle will host (in Bordeaux), another English club in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup. They will face Exeter on April 30.

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"Only happiness"

In the semi-finals, Ronan O'Gara's players will continue their English triptych in a duel between the defending champion and the winner of the truncated event of 2020, less glamorous on paper than the umpteenth battle of the leaders between Leinster and Toulouse, opposed to Dublin as last year at the same stadium.

In the Top 14, La Rochelle, currently second behind its rival Stade Toulousain, hopes to win one of the two qualifying places for the semi-finals of the finals. A hope of double that is not surprising for Nicolas Dupin de Beyssat, present in Europe 1 Sport: "It's nice for this club of La Rochelle which is built stone by stone and scientifically. And it's a success every step of the way." And the Rochelais will be able to count on their supporters: "Everything that has happened to us for eight, nine years, is only happiness. It's always a crazy atmosphere in the stadium, it's wonderful for our players. To feel supported as they are is a lot of happiness," said Vincent Merling.