Advertisement
J. Wainiqolo (30')
Tries
A. Hastoy (4'), V. Bouju (8'), D. Leyds (39'), W. Waqanisaravi (54')
L. Berdeu (31')
Conversions
A. Hastoy (5', 8', 40', 54')
L. Berdeu (13', 20', 49')
Penalties
This told us as much about control as it did about flair. La Rochelle scored four tries off far less ball and trusted their defence to do the ugly work. Lyon had the possession, the carries and the metres but not the accuracy. When the visitors got chances, they finished. When the hosts got chances, they blinked.
Two tries inside eight minutes put Lyon in a hole they never climbed out of. That early scoreboard pressure framed the whole afternoon: Lyon chased, La Rochelle measured the chase. Even when the home side dragged it back to a one-score contest after the break, the next clinical strike came in yellow and black and the air went out of Gerland.
The shape of it is in the numbers as much as the moments. Lyon owned 52% of the ball and made 148 carries to La Rochelle’s 88, with parity in clean breaks. But the home side bled 19 turnovers to nine and lost rhythm at the set piece. La Rochelle, meanwhile, were messy in discipline but tidy where it mattered: four tries, 89% lineout, and enough scrum ball to launch. That was the trade.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The turning point was not the blistering start – damaging as that was – but the punch right on half-time. At 13–14 after Leo Berdeu had nudged Lyon back and Jiuta Wainiqolo carved in off the edge, the game had shifted towards the hosts. Then Dillyn Leyds struck at 39 minutes and Antoine Hastoy added the extras: 13–21 at the whistle, the kind of swing that changes how both sides talk in the sheds. Lyon emerged needing to stack scores; La Rochelle could play the corners and wait for the next error.
Lyon did give themselves a lane, Berdeu clipping it to 16–21 on 49 minutes, but the response was brutal in its simplicity: a five-pointer for Watisoni Waqanisaravi five minutes later, converted by Hastoy, and that was the cushion. From there, La Rochelle’s defence – imperfect but committed – absorbed the volume. Even a 67th-minute yellow for Thomas Adelaide did not shift the ledger; Lyon lacked the composure and set-piece platform to make 14 men pay.
Individual performances tell a similar story. Wainiqolo was Lyon’s chaos engine: 18 carries, 141 metres and nine defenders beaten. He also coughed up ball four times. That duality captured Lyon’s day – threat without control. Full-back Gabin Lorre was busy and incisive (19 carries, 92 metres), Berdeu took 11 points and carried often, but his three turnovers hurt at key moments. In the pack, there was effort in traffic but too few dominant moments when the game begged for a maul or a scrum to settle everyone down. One scrum win from three tells its own tale; 71% lineout won is not where you want to be against a side that concedes territory deliberately to swarm the breakdown.
La Rochelle’s standouts were efficient rather than spectacular. Hastoy ran the day with a maturity that belied the heat Lyon tried to put on him: a try on four minutes, four conversions, and the right kicks at the right times. Leyds’ score just before the break was the finish that separated the sides. Waqanisaravi brought punch and reach as a carrying lock and got the decisive fourth try. Around them, the back row worked like dogs – Andy Timo topped the tackle count with 16 – and the decision-making when a turnover appeared was sharp. Tolu Latu delivered a clean lineout (six wins) before the bench took over.
Does 28–16 flatter La Rochelle? Not really. Lyon had the ball and looked dangerous in broken field, but the visitors built the only stretches of truly decisive rugby – the start, the stroke of half-time, the first counterpunch of the second half. The penalty count (15) and a middling scrum success will bother them, but four-try wins away in the Top 14 do not come cheap. They earned the right to kick their goals by being ruthless when it counted.
For Lyon, the concern is the trend line, not the margin. That is three defeats on the bounce after an electric opening fortnight, and the issues are consistent: a soft start, looseness around the ruck, and an unreliable platform. The talent is obvious – Wainiqolo and Iosefo Masi broke tackles for fun – but until they value the ball more than the moment, they will keep giving good teams a head start they cannot chase down.
La Rochelle climb into the top three on the back of back-to-back wins and will like the balance they’re finding between strike and graft. There’s work to do – tighten the scrum, cut the penalties – before Bordeaux roll into view, but this was a proper away performance. Lyon, with Bayonne next, need to make this week about control: cleaner lineout, better exit detail and ruthless red-zone decision-making. The ambition is there. The accuracy has to follow.
