La Rochelle still on track for three consecutive Champions Cup trophies
Double defending champions La Rochelle resisted a late surge from Sale Sharks on Sunday to win 24-37, book their place in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup and keep their hopes of three consecutive titles alive.
Having lost their opening two matches – at home to last year’s finalists Leinster and away to the Stormers in South Africa – Ronan O’Gara’s men toppled Leicester last weekend to set up a winner-takes-all tie against Sale in Manchester on Sunday.
And they got off to a flying start with back Dillyn Leyds crossing the whitewash and No10 Antoine Hastoy kicking 11 points to hand the French giants a 16-0 lead.
Hastoy crossed for a try of his own, as did scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow, and kicked two further conversions to give his side a 30-0 lead.
Sale started to fight back with tries courtesy of Tom Roebuck and Agustin Creevy.
But UJ Seuteni put the game to bed 10 minutes from time despite two late scores for the home side – through Sam Dugdale and Telusa Veainu.
La Rochelle in the mix
The result means La Rochelle jumped up to third in Pool 4 and will be in the knockout round of 16, though they will be away from home.
Leinster finished top of the pool, five points clear of the Stormers, with La Rochelle third and Leicester Tigers fourth.
Sale Sharks will now drop into the Challenge Cup round of 16, where they could come up against teams such as fellow English side Gloucester or the Durban Sharks depending on how many games they win going forward.
“We are really happy to finally be qualified,” player of the match Gregory Alldritt said.
“We are happy to get to the next stage. This is huge for us, we’ve got a possibility to be winners three times in a row.
“We had a really good strategy and today we showed everyone we can play anyone, anywhere.”