In Nanterre, Finn Russell, excellent in his shots on goal and very good in the animation of the game, delivered a very great performance on Saturday evening. Teddy Thomas was rather shy with the ball in his hands…
Tops
In the alignment, Baptiste Chouzenoux is the best “blocker” in the championship and proved it again on Saturday evening, by making the jumpers from La Rochelle go crazy. What a harvest! Add to that constant activity and you’ll understand why ‘Chou’ is considered to have produced his best match this season against the reigning European champions.
Author of twenty-four points and a 90% in his shots on goal, Finn Russell was therefore the author of a great match at Nanterre on Saturday evening. Against Stade La Rochelais, he animated the line to perfection, delivered superb jump passes, including a decisive one for one three-quarter center Olivier Klemenczak. When the Scot plays like this, he is simply irresistible…
Max Spring may only be 1.76m tall, but he enjoys high balls and has demonstrated it again on this sixteenth day of the championship. Also formidable with the ball in hand, the international tricolor therefore released the right match at the right time.
Released by Fabien Galthié in the middle of the week, Antoine Hastoy did not really train with Stade La Rochelle before this trip to Nanterre. Has this been seen? Not really, no… Excellent animation, decisive on a harshly well-executed counter-attack then on a personal feat after a breakthrough of forty meters, the Béarnais was also rather clean in his shots on goal. A great performance.
Flops
As this last penalty in closed scrum, offering the winning goal to Racing 92, cost the Rochelais dearly… blame himself…
We cannot say that his entry into the game, in Nanterre, was a success. First author of a very limited gesture on Francis Saili, Levani Botia then committed a dangerous tackle on Finn Russell and logically received a yellow card on this action. A match to forget for the versatile La Rochelle…
His return to Paris-La Défense-Arena was undoubtedly one of the events of the evening. Verdict? Faced with his former teammates, Teddy Thomas was rather shy with the ball in hand and only too rarely managed to make the difference. We obviously expect more from Aguilera’s child…