SO where were we before we were rudely interrupted by a pair of red cards that torpedoed our ambitions for a first Top 14 title in La Rochelle’s history?
‘Toulouse down ill-disciplined La Rochelle to reach Top 14 final’ was the June 21 headline and it was as accurate as it was galling. All the life books tell you that with age you gain perspective. I had an aching gut through the ten weeks from season’s end to pre-season, searching for torture and scrutiny of our indiscipline and why we can’t get it right.
We led 20-15 at half-time in the Bordeaux semi before the 43rd minute red card for Uini Atonio followed by another for Reda Wardi on the hour for a dangerous tackle and violent play respectively.
I crucified myself and my summer over this. The more you flail around looking for satisfactory answers to give you closure, the more elusive it becomes. This creates a very unhealthy and unpleasant sense of yourself. Finally, inexplicably, the beast quietens but our pre-season has placed a very heavy emphasis on discipline. Just to note, the two reds were for completely different transgressions - one was for a tackle technique, the other for completely losing his head.
Everything has seemed fine in practice and meetings until you get into the stress zone in training and then it all seems to go out the window again. I’d be a stone cold liar if I said none of these issues were going to resurface.
That makes it very frustrating.
The Top 14 kicks off this weekend, my fourth campaign as the head coach at La Rochelle. People would think we have bypassed the macro and are down to the micro issues at this point, but you can never really park your core principles. These are not silver baubles you place on the mantelpiece and infrequently dust down. These are the strip lighting that guide your every day behaviour and I’m not sure it’s been properly hammered into place by me as yet here. You think if you keep tap-tapping the same message, it has to be going in there at some stage. You have to have hope.
These are experienced players. Though it lingers like a taste of onion, you can’t hang your entire season prep on two red cards. We had a penalty in front of the posts to make it 23-15, now it’s more than one score game. We gave Toulouse that semi-final. There is a skill in knowing how to stay in the fight. A learning.
How we unravelled at the end of last season fed into a hard truth that never left me –we were not properly at the pace of the game all season. That’s a big statement and it’s on me too; we never got a proper block of work into players. It’s easy to blame the World Cup and the Six Nations, but I’m also talking about the club players. Our pre-season was a game at the end of our third week back. This time around we’ve have done five decent weeks that you are able to bank, and see them get fitter in front of your eyes.
We have a new fitness coach, Steph du Toit, a South African who has come to us from the Stormers via Stade Francais. He has added an outside view to what we do, and also thinks as a rugby coach and his energy alone feels like five new signings.
And it was progressing quite nicely until we met Pau in our only pre-season prep friendly last Saturday. Losing by four was one thing, but the performance was so disappointing. Here’s the moment when I fight with myself.
Rog, it’s a pre-season friendly, let’s not over-react.
Yes, Rog, but there are certain markers when you put on a La Rochelle jersey that are non-negotiables, and need to be accountable for. If you are accountable for nothing in a game, then you are going to be fairly disappointed in the heel of the hunt.
It was our sole pre-season game. Most take two. Almost all the other Top 14 sides have gone with two ahead of this weekend. Losing at home to Toulon this Sunday evening is not in our script, but when opposition see you losing to (all respect) Pau, and see that there’s no Atonio, Botia, or Rhule this weekend, they are thinking let’s go after them and see what their core is like. We are all in on Sunday. A trip to Toulouse follows a week later, but it’s the moon to us right now.
RECRUITMENT by Top 14 clubs can sometimes have the look and feel of a modern-day trolley dash, with clubs often shipping out 15 players and bringing as many in to replace them. With that level of turnover in the dressing room, one is wondering why would you care about the player next to you?
We’ve brought in Kane Douglas from Bordeaux and parked the rest of our business until next year. If you don’t have the invigoration of new blood into the system, you also don’t have to be concerned with learning systems or building relationships to the same extent. We can focus on increasing the fitness and skill levels of every player, knowing they have been together for at least 12 months. Focus on the things we need to be better overall - our skills and fitness heading into a game.
There are continuous conversations with the owner, Vincent Merling and our CEO Pierre Veneyre on targets and gaps, on the project generally. At my end, as the coach, the key is having training competitive, so there is a bite to your week, but also having competition for places.
At times last year we were struggling to put together 10 backs and 13 forwards out there. We were filling holes and not agonising over who we would be leaving out. It’s a very different discussion. To have a bite to your season, you need players not knowing whether they are starting. Some players need that assurance, but others don’t and can’t.
Having lost our European crown and failing to reach a Top 14 final, the glass-half-full merchants will ask are La Rochelle stagnating or regressing. It’s a fair question for a coach going into his fourth campaign. So starting quickly and getting momentum is crucial, otherwise it’s going to be a dog and slog of a season.
I am absolutely convinced the quality is there; new additions don’t worry me because we have good cattle. But if you have half a dozen in the infirmary, it becomes complicated. At the minute, we are pretty good, though missing our two young wingers, Hoani Bosmorim and Nathan Bollengier, leaves the back three a bit undressed.
We have to win away games this year. In Years One and Two I was strong on busting that French mindset of win at home, accept losses away. I felt I fell victim to it a bit myself last year. Forget that. That pass has been removed.
Was I beaten down heading off on holidays at the end of last season? Most definitely. That’s the nature of professional sport - the more successful you are, the bigger the disappointments, but you have to get fuel from those downers. Now I am re-energised to go. So whether it’s a friendly match pre-season or the semi-final of a European Cup, there are certain standards you need to hit. Not to the same extent but you need to have that winners’ mentality whether it’s a five a side in the park on the final of a European Cup. These basics must stand as tall as pillars.
Training will be at a higher intensity for that reason and for the improvement in fitness.
That won’t be a problem for some, not least our 34 year old scrum half Tawera Kerr Barlow. We have signalled our intention to sign Racing’s Nolann Le Garrec for the 2025-26 campaign. It’s a big signing, he’s 22, he has a massive future. His father coaches in Vannes, who are back in the Top 14,and he has a big friend in Mathias Haddad. He knows us but above all, he’s a young man who knows what he wants out of rugby. He wants to sign for us.
That focuses eyes on Tawera’s future. When you know TKB like I do, the man and the professional, then you understand there is no debate at all on his future. Our intention is to keep Tawera next season too. He’s crucial.
The likes of Joey Carbery will have a massive battle to get ahead of Mathieu Jalibert in his new posting in Bordeaux Begles. The nature of the league means 23 get used regularly so he will see oodles of gametime even if there are only 10-15 starts. Bordeaux took a hell of a beating in the Top 14 final, the sort that can leave stigmatise and no more than ourselves, they will want to hit the ground running Saturday at home to Stade Francais.
There will be eyes on Owen Farrell too at Racing 92, even if it feels like his signing has almost slipped in under the radar here. That’s the way with French rugby now, because they are spoiled with the proliferation of global stars and big name signings. The Farrell-Stuart Lancaster dynamic will work very well. The issue will be the fusion with French tastes in the set-up.
There will need to be a carefully constructed balance.
