Will Skelton was the official man of the match in La Rochelle’s 45-12 victory over the Leicester Tigers at Stade Marcel-Deflandre on Sunday. Grégory Alldritt and Levani Botia were superb but so too was former Connacht and Ireland international Ultan Dillane.
It was quite an afternoon for Dillane, who received a yellow card for a high hit, as he produced a fine display in all facets of the game, including nicking a couple of lineouts as well as getting through a mountain of work on both sides of the ball. The 30-year-old won 19 caps for Ireland between 2016 and 2021, including playing in the victory over New Zealand at Soldier Field.
Since moving to La Rochelle he’s been part of a squad that have won two Champions Cups and is thriving under head coach Ronan O’Gara. The French side scored seven tries as they thrashed Leicester, despite being on the end of three yellow cards from Irish referee Andrew Brace. At one stage the home side scored a try with only 13 players.
The Tigers took the opportunity to rest a number of players but the defeat means that they’ll need to get a win when Leinster rock up to Welford Road next Saturday afternoon. La Rochelle offered the Irish province one or two pointers as to how they might get after the English club, disrupting their lineout and using the crosskick to check Leicester’s line-speed in defence.
The Tigers were very linear in terms of some of their attack and ran out of ideas in that capacity long before the end. Former Ireland Under-20 international Dan Kelly scored a late consolation. Leicester will be grateful that their former World Cup-winning Springbok Handré Pollard survived a fearsome hit that saw Jonathan Danty punished with a yellow card as he left the pitch injured.
Dazzling Dupont earns rebuke from head of referees
Antoine Dupont produced another masterclass in Toulouse’s 48-24 victory over Ulster in the Champions Cup at the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday night. It was an eloquent display before he heads off soon on a permanent basis to join the France Sevens squad for a couple of World Series events and ultimately the Paris Olympics.
Dupont had been the subject of mild criticism last week from Frenchman Joel Jutge, head of referees at World Rugby, for comments made in the wake of France’s 29-28 defeat to South Africa at the World Cup. The scrumhalf said in the aftermath: “There are clear and obvious situations which have not been whistled but I don’t want to get angry ... I’m not sure that the refereeing was up to the level of the challenge”.
Jutge, speaking exclusively to Midi Olympique, said: “As the person responsible for the referees, I cannot endorse what Antoine Dupont said because it gave rise to a terrible wave of abuse and hatred online towards [New Zealand referee] Ben [O’Keeffe].
“But I know the man, and I have no doubt about his moral values and the way he perceives the exchanges between referees and players. He is a huge champion and a good person whom we respect, but I repeat, I do not condone what he said that day, even if we all know that he was under enormous pressure to return following his injury.”
Number: 200
The number of appearances that Luke McGrath has racked up for Leinster, a milestone he reached when coming on in the 43-7 victory over Stade Francais.
Will Hickey’s tale of the tape
Former St Michael’s College pupil and Ireland underage international Will Hickey turned in a very impressive and prominent display on his return to fitness from an ACL injury in Ospreys’ 25-3 victory over Perpignan in the European Challenge Cup at the Liberty Stadium.
The 22-year-old backrow was introduced after just five minutes following an injury to Welsh international Dewi Lake, the hooker starting at flanker, and made an immediate impact. He was second in terms of tackles (14) and led the team in the number of turnovers (two).
Hickey is a talented young player who accepted an invitation from Mike Ruddock to join the Welsh club from the Leinster academy. One aspect of the young flanker cum number eight’s appearance is very distinctive in that he tapes up all his fingers.
He has explained why: “So I actually have a condition called hyperhidrosis, it’s to do with the nervous system and it causes me to sweat excessively. I only started taping my fingers up three or four years ago because my hands would get really clammy.
“When I was playing it would cause me to drop the ball more and I’d get the ball stripped off me too easily, so taping my fingers really helps with that.”
Quote
“We were really good in the last quarter against a championship-level team who boast a number of world-class players and compared to where we were 18 months ago this performance is a testimony to the hard work that we’ve put in during our journey.” – Bath coach Johann van Graan following his side’s 29-25 win over Racing 92.
