A huge “phew” of relief! In a crazy round of 16 in Cape Town (South Africa) against the raging Stormers, who led 13-0 at the break, Stade Rochelais remains alive in this European Cup of which it is the double defending champion.
A victory (22-21) snatched with the help of the wind: the transformation attempted by Manie Libbok, South African world champion, escaping to the left of the posts in added time. La Rochelle becomes the first French team to win in this competition in South Africa and will therefore play in the quarter-finals.
#InvestecChampionsCup 🏉 | THE ROCHELAIS JUST QUALIFY INTO THE QUARTER-FINAL 😱
Manie Libbok misses the conversion to win for the Stormers at the last second (21-22) ❌#STOvSR pic.twitter.com/zlxvKbXMKw
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Ronan O'Gara's team also takes a nice revenge on the meeting of December 16 in the opposite scenario (21-20 defeat). In the group stage, Manie Libbok also had to negotiate a transformation to win in the final moment of the match, with more success. But this time, La Rochelle got through it. Without shining but thanks to a whole group and in particular the forward packs, decisive in reversing the score in the second period. The pillars Louis Kenziah Penverne (50th), Joël Sclavi (69th) and the third row and captain Grégory Alldritt (62nd) signed the three tries for the Maritimes.
At least that was necessary against the Stormers, pushed by their audience at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. Dominant for almost an hour, the South Africans were rewarded by the foot of Libbok (4th, 23, 28th, 46th) and by a try from scrum half Herschel Jantjies (28th) to lead up to 16-0 . At the end of the match, once La Rochelle were in front, the Stormers tried everything, taking advantage of the yellow card from La Rochelle winger Dillyn Leyds (76th). His South African counterpart Suleiman Hartzenberg, found at the end of the line, then thought he had done the hard part by scoring a new try (80th).
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21-22 at that time. Manie Libbok is behind the 22 meter line, off-center on the right side of the field. The opener hits and sees the ball flying to the left. Victory for La Rochelle, which shows the French that it is capable of beating a South African team by one point. See you in the quarter-finals against the winner of the Leinster-Leicester clash.