England’s team Saracens were playing against the holders La Rochelle in a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final match. Midway through the game, Saracens’ number eight Billy Vunipola had to be carried off on a stretcher. La Rochelle ended up winning 24-10 with two tries and four penalties. Saracen managed to score only one try and one penalty, which resulted in their elimination from the competition.
Eroni Mawi scored a try for Saracens, but unfortunately one of their players named Billy Vunipola got injured earlier. So sadly, they couldn’t win. Antoine Hastoy got 14 points for La Rochelle and Owen Farrell kicked a penalty as well as a conversion to the score board. La Rochelle will hopefully try to get the Champions Cup in 2022, and are aiming to be in the final three times in a row.
Exeter and Bordeaux will play a match on the weekend of April 29-30th, while Toulouse is going to take on Leinster in Dublin. The final match between these two teams will be held at Aviva Stadium on May 20th. The Saracens team must now concentrate on winning the Premiership title and they have secured a home semi-final.
La Rochelle Defeats Saracens with Brilliant Defensive Play
La Rochelle nearly lost to Gloucester in their last match, but this time they played more confidently. They defended really well and scored any points that were available from kicks. Hastoy made three penalties during the first-half and then Kerr-Barlow got La Rochelle’s first try as he grabbed it from close range after swapping passes with someone at a ruck.
Levani Botia made some good passes on the right side of the field which created space and opened up a chance for Kerr-Barlow to score again and make the game a lot more certain. La Rochelle had one player sent away to the sin-bin because they made a high tackle, but they still managed to protect their lead with some brilliant defensive work near the try line.
The home team experienced a bit of bad luck when Will Skelton, former Australia and Sarries player, got hurt and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher with a neck brace. Tom Woolstencroft, who was subbed in for Sarries got a yellow card for his contact with Skelton’s head as he tried to shove aside some players at a ruck. We still don’t know what happened to Vunipola yet since he had to leave shortly after the game started and it seemed like his right leg was the problem.
The English player tried to walk off the court with help from Saracens’ doctors, but he had to be carried away on a stretcher. After the match, McCall told ITV about losing: “Their defense was really good. We had lots of chances and ways to score but they were smart and made use of every chance they got.”
“They are amazing! They are the champions in Europe and were finalists for two years in a row. If you want to compete against them, you need to be really precise and that’s what we weren’t able to do.”
Epic European Rugby Clash
– On Saturday, April 29th at 3 pm BST you can watch Leinster face off with Toulouse in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
– Then the next day on Sunday, April 30th also at 3 pm BST you can see La Rochelle versus Exeter Chiefs play each other in Bordeaux’s Matmut Atlantique.
Ready, Set, Go! La Rochelle and Saracens Face Off, Refereed by Andrew Brace!
La Rochelle has Dulin, Favre, Seuteni, Danty, Rhule, Hastoy and Kerr-Barlow on the team. Wardi, Bourgarit and Atonio are also playing with Lavault, Skelton and Dillane completing them. Botia’s the captain while Alldritt is being replaced by Lespiaucq, Thompson-Stringer, Sclavi, Sazy and Tanga. Others who’ve been called are Bourdeau, Berjon and Thomas.
The Saracens’ starting lineup includes Goode; Malins, Lozowski and Tompkins while Maitland completes it. Farrell is the captain while Van Zyl plays alongside MVunipola and George with Riccioni alongside Itoje plus Tizrd in the middle. Isiekwe and Earl wrap up their lineup together with BVunipola at top. Woolstencroft as well as Mawi will replace some of them later on with Judge Hunter-Hill taking part too together Wray in addition to De Haas plus Taylor plus Lewington concluding it all up.
Andrew Brace from Ireland is the referee for this Rugby Union game. To stay up to date with all the news and updates about the Rugby Union, you can subscribe to its podcast or add it in your Sport News Center app to so you can get alerts!
