French flair leaves Bristol’s cup bid hanging by a thread
Marcello Cossali-Francis reports on Bristol’s game against La Rochelle at Ashton Gate
BRISTOL suffered their heaviest home defeat of the season as French outfit La Rochelle earned themselves maximum points and remained top of Pool 4 in the European Challenge Cup with a 22-35 victory at Ashton Gate.
The Bears did manage to take a point from the game, thanks to Charlie Powell’s try on 76 minutes, to just about keep their hopes alive in the competition.
The French side, buoyed by a raucous away following, started slowly before turning on the style in the second half with three brilliant tries – from Jules Favre, Vincent Rattez and Jeremy Sinzelle – as they all but ensured their place in the quarter-finals.
The defeat leaves the Bears in third place with seven points after Zebre earned a bonus-point win out in Russia earlier in the day. Bristol now travel to France next weekend for the return fixture against La Rochelle needing a victory to stay in with a chance of making the quarter-finals.
Bristol started the game strongly, racing into a 10-0 lead after just 17 minutes with Harry Thacker scoring his sixth try in three matches and captain Jake Heenan going over after some good work from Callum Sheedy.
However, La Rochelle were gifted a route back into the game when Bears fumbled the restart following Heenan’s try.
A few phases was all it took for the French side to crash over, with Gregory Alldritt getting the try, and the conversion reduced the deficit to just three points.
The remainder of the half lacked rhythm as both sides continued to struggle with the wet and windy conditions. However, Bristol could and probably should have extended their lead, only for Thacker to decide to go himself, instead of passing inside, with the try-line gaping.
And it was the visitiors who went in ahead at half-time after Romain Sazy scored under the posts following some brilliant, typicallyFrench, offloading.
The conversion was added and La Rochelle led by four points, as Bristol’s strong start was overturned.
La Rochelle came out flying in the second half and really started to play the style of rugby every fan can appreciate.
Favre touched down the third try after a well-worked set-piece move, before full-back Rattez, scored the try of the day following some more silky handling and terrific offloads.
The visitors continued to demonstrate their flair and it came as no surprise when they scored a fifth try on the hour mark.
Number eight Victor Vito, who has been linked with a move to