La Rochelle
Bayonne
W. Waqanisaravi (4'), D. Leyds (29'), J. Favre (71')
Tries
G. Martocq (13'), M. Tambwe (73')
B. Healy (4', 71')
Conversions
J. Segonds (73')
B. Healy (64')
Penalties
J. Segonds (27', 46')
La Rochelle won this because they got on the board first, played off faster ball all night and, when the clock squeezed, they were the side dictating where and how the last exchanges were played. That’s not romance, it’s rucks and rhythm: an average ruck speed around 0.24 seconds to Bayonne’s 0.42, and more rucks won overall, meant front-foot ball and repeat entries. Once they set that tone, Bayonne were chasing the game on someone else’s tempo.
What kept it tight was La Rochelle’s own looseness in patches and Bayonne’s refusal to go away. The visitors’ lineout was spotless and Joris Segonds’ penalties kept dragging them back to a one-score picture. But the decisive beats were La Rochelle’s — the fourth-minute strike, the middle-third burst down the left, and that closing spell when they owned possession and field position.
Everything flowed from the start. Off clean, lightning ruck ball, Watisoni Waqanisaravi finished in the corner after a punchy carry sequence. Scoreboard pressure inside four minutes forces different choices for the rest of the night; Bayonne had to play more, sooner. They answered promptly through Guillaume Martocq after finally getting field position, but Segonds’ missed conversion mattered in a game decided on small margins. From there, La Rochelle never actually surrendered the lead, and that early score framed the contest.
The speed piece wasn’t cosmetic. With Valentin Bouju flicking quick service and carriers tipping on rather than dying in the contact, La Rochelle stacked phases and stress. They made far more carries and beat far more defenders, which is what those ruck numbers look like on grass. The second try was classic tempo rugby: width, a late tip, and Dillyn Leyds cutting in off his wing after a passage where Bayonne were constantly folding and never quite set. When the game returned to chaos late on, Jules Favre struck on 71 minutes — again off fast ball — to give the cushion they needed down the stretch.
Match Stats
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
Bayonne’s best spells came when they dragged the game back into set piece and kick pressure. A perfect 17 from 17 at the lineout gave them a platform, and Segonds’ boots at 27 and 46 minutes clipped La Rochelle’s indiscipline. But the visitors’ breakdown was a handbrake: slower ball, fewer rucks built, and only one turnover won all night. That made it too easy for La Rochelle to reset defensively. Even their brightest moments underline the problem — Madosh Tambwe needed broken field and a quick release to threaten, which he did, but they couldn’t manufacture that state often enough.
Individuals mattered inside that structure. Waqanisaravi didn’t just score early; he kept denting and linking, a constant source of front-foot ball that let Bouju play flat. Leyds was sharp all evening, five defenders beaten and three offloads telling you how often he found the seam or the support. Sam Tuifua carried with bite and supplied the hands for Favre’s late finish, while Jack Nowell quietly did the dirty work wide and in the tackle. At 10, Ben Healy didn’t overplay it — a calm penalty on 64 minutes when the game begged for control, and smart territory that kept Bayonne pinned when it mattered.
For Bayonne, Martocq’s finish at 13 signalled they could stress La Rochelle’s edge if they earned the right. Giovanni Habel-Kuffner tackled himself to a standstill and Etuale Tuilagi was physical in contact, while Andy Bordelai worked hard as a linking loosehead. But the stat that stings is the breakdown: they just couldn’t speed it up. Even the rare disruption — a good steal from bench man Brian Alainu’uese — was the exception, not the theme. That lack of jackal threat allowed La Rochelle to play multi-phase without fear of the poach.
Did the margin flatter the hosts? Not really. If anything, the closeness reflected La Rochelle’s penalty count and a soft patch after their opener, rather than Bayonne’s control of the game. The numbers skew heavily towards the home side in carries, defenders beaten and turnovers won; the visitors’ 190 tackles tell you which team spent most of the night without the ball. Tambwe’s late try kept it honest, but La Rochelle had already banked Favre’s score and, in the final ten minutes, they owned the ball and shaded the points. Game management, not luck.
There are work-ons for the winners. La Rochelle’s exit after scoring was ropey — Martocq’s reply came off pressure they invited — and they gave Bayonne too many cheap entries via penalties. But the identity looked right again at Marcel-Deflandre: quick rucks, willing carriers, and enough composure at the end to close a tight Top 14 fixture. That jumps them above their neighbours in a congested mid-table and, if they bottle that tempo, keeps them in the hunt for the six.
Bayonne leave with a losing bonus and a sense of what’s missing. The set piece is clean, the back three can hurt you, the back row works, but the breakdown is too slow and too safe, and they’re living off scraps when games speed up. Fix the ruck — protect their own ball and add a couple more genuine jackal threats — and the lineout platform will start to convert into sustained pressure rather than isolated punches. Until then, nights like this will keep slipping away when the clock turns red.