Disappointment for Red Bulls, delight for La Rochelle

When people say the French teams aren't bothered about away games in Europe, tell that to the players and supporters of La Rochelle at full time last night following their 18-26 victory.

Red Bulls start well

Red Bulls started this game in a very promising manner. I said in my preview I wanted to see more from the attack and there were a couple of plays where they cut the defensive line but they couldn't finish the move. Rhys Beeckmans was used to take the ball to the line but then offload before contact to make the space outside. We saw a much better use of Beeckmans than being used as a battering ram. Christian Wade looked dangerous too. A Brett Connon penalty saw Red Bulls lead after twelve minutes and to that point we hadn't really seen much of La Rochelle.

Red Bulls errors allow La Rochelle into the game

Red Bulls had controlled the first quarter of the match and we hadn't seen too much of La Rochelle. But they stuck in the game and Red Bull errors allowed them back in. On twenty minutes La Rochelle attacked but a grubber kick through which Christian Wade failed to deal with and Ihaia West got the ball down just before it went dead. Kicking into the wind, Jurd missed the conversion.

La Rochelle take a hold on the game

The second La Rochelle try was scored after half an hour, they went wide on the right and Jules Favre took three defenders with him over to score. Again, I think defensively Red Bulls could've done better. There was cover coming over but the try was scored, the conversion was missed but La Rochelle led 3-10 which looked unlikely after the first quarter.

After thirty five minutes La Rochelle had a lineout close to the Red Bulls line and worked a lovely move which saw the ball passed back into the five metre channel for hooker Gabin Garault to score. Again the conversion into the wind was missed but at 5-15 play with the wind it felt like a long way back for Red Bulls at that point.

Yellow card, gives Red Bulls a chance

Just before half time, Red Bulls made a linebreak we hadn't really seen since the first quarter and got close to the La Rochelle line. Ihaia West was penalised and shown a yellow card. In the resulting play, Red Bulls went wide and there was a gap in the La Rochelle defence for Elliott Obatoyinbo to score, Connon missed the conversion but the half time score was 8-15 with La Rochelle down to fourteen men for the first part of the second half.

McCallum does a Carre

Murray McCallum was introduced from the bench at half time and his first act was to score the try of the game as he got the ball on the twenty two spotted a gap and rounded the full back to score a memorable try in front of The South Stand. Connon converted and the game was tied at 15-15. Crucially though, Storm Dave had arrived at Kingston Park with Red Bulls playing into horrendous conditions for the majority of the second half.

Penalties traded and yellow card

Red Bulls took the lead on fifty five minutes as the conditions worsened as Brett Connon slotted a penalty. Crucially straight after, Fergus Lee-Warner was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. Initially it looked like the referee had gone to the screen to watch fan cam as he was watching more people in the crowd than any foul play!

Shortly after, Will Hearle took a quick tap penalty and the ball found George McGuigan who took the ball at pace but a defender came and marmalised him. The home crowd wanted a penalty and a yellow card and after looking at the incident on the screen a knock-on was given instead to the anger of the home crowd. For me, he got that decision right. There were some who felt they might not have been back ten metres from Hearle's tap. It was a crucial decision as that would've stretched the Red Bull lead to 21-15.

Instead shortly after Diego Jurd showed class and maturity for such a young fly half slotting a penalty to take the score to 18-18.

Extra time a possibility?

For long periods of the remainder of the game being played in horrendous conditions it looked as though extra time could be on the cards. But La Rochelle played the conditions really well keeping Red Bulls pinned back and eventually took the lead on seventy six minutes when Jurd slotted his second penalty of the game. With Storm Dave doing its worst it looked like an unlikely comeback from there. Then in the final act of the game with Red Bulls having no choice but to force things there was an error on the Red Bulls line and Nolhann Couillaud pounced to dot down to the joy of everyone connected with La Rochelle at Kingston Park. The conversion was missed but the final score was 18-26.

Lots of industry from Red Bulls

You couldn't fault the effort from Red Bulls last night. I thought George McGuigan, Ollie Leatherbarrow and Tom Christie led the charge with their workrate last night. Leatherbarrow especially was everywhere and carried hard.

Frustratingly there were key times when composure at lineouts cost Red Bulls and a lack of using the wind in the first half came back to haunt them as conditions worsened in the second half.

Stop start

I found the game very stop start, this was partly due to conditions. I think Eoghan Cross didn't get much help from his Touch Judges and when he went to the screen the broadcast took ages to get to the passage of play he wanted to see. Some of the decisions could've gone another way on another day but I don't think Cross is to blame for this one. The stop start nature and errors with a lot of scrum time favoured La Rochelle as their scrum got on top in the second half with the wind at their back.

Missed opportunity

Red Bulls will be disappointed with this one and I know conditions weren't great at the end but the players not staying out and coming over to the fans at the end was disappointing. To me, the players should always come over and thank the fans who turned up.

Disappointing crowd

Given the former European Champions were in town and there's been a big lead up time to the game I was disappointed with the attendance. This was a chance for Red Bulls to have a shot in Europe and ultimately it's an opportunity missed.

What's next for Red Bulls

Next up after a week off is a trip to Leicester, Red Bulls sit nine points behind Gloucester and have to go to Welford Road and get some points from this game to put the pressure on Harlequins and Gloucester above them. Red Bulls still have to play Harlequins at home and travel to Kingsholm on the last game of the season. If they can go to Kingsholm with a chance of eighth place and a shot at Champions Cup qualification they'll fancy their chances having already beaten Gloucester this season.

Fair play La Rochelle

I'll finish how I started by saying well done to La Rochelle and their supporters who made the trip to Newcastle. People say away games mean nothing in Europe to French teams, tell that to those at Kingston Park connected to La Rochelle last night. I hope they enjoyed their time in Newcastle, guessing it was a relatively quiet night last night!