The Rochelais winners against the Sarries. ROMAN PERROCHEAU / AFP
Champions Cup title holders, Stade Rochelais players overcame Saracens and reached the semi-finals of the competition.
Romain Carmignanicoach of La Rochelle, who qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions Cup at the expense of Saracens:
«We don’t realize too much at the moment. We dreaded this game against Saracens who are a great team. The decline in physics in the second period? I don’t really know what caused it. We attacked this match hard, that’s what we said to each other this week. The boys lived up to expectations perfectly. We knew that the Sarries were going to be dangerous with the ball in hand so we focused on our defense. Regarding Will (Skelton, injured), we will congratulate the firefighters who managed to transport him (laughs). He is fine, he was in the locker room, we are reassured. The ruck zones, we have been working on them for three years, and it is one of our trademarks. + Lep’s + (the nickname of Levani Botia), we know the player, he is a monster. We all love the man he is. It is made for this sport. He loves to carry the ball and he is very aggressive on the static phases on the ground. The semi-final will be a great rugby party in Bordeaux. Players may already have their bearings for having played there not long ago. But this match is not done yet, we will have to go get her.»
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Dave Kerr-Barlowscrum-half from La Rochelle:
«After our performance against Gloucester (victory in extremis in the round of 16, editor’s note), we are happy to regain our quality of play and to win our place in the semi-finals. I don’t know if we were favorites today (Sunday), but we knew during the week that we had to raise the level. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. Saracens are always strong in the rucks so we wanted to challenge them in that area of play. (Levani) Botia was huge tonight, he saved us a lot of times when we were falling back. On my second try it does all the work and I just have to flatten it. The first try is a bit like the second, especially since I was dead after quite a few phases of play, but Greg (Alldritt) once again served me perfectly. Beating the Saracens, whom we had never met, is a new step for us. We’re going to take advantage of the victory tonight, we’re going to celebrate, but we know we’re going to have to go up a notch again.»
Reda Wardipillar of La Rochelle:
«There is a lot of joy in the group. The Saracens are a great team with great individuals, with a big pack, we were ready for this challenge. We have nothing to be ashamed of when we look at our workforce. Live matches, we must not trivialize them, it remains engraved. There was a big battle up front, it was a pretty tight match with a lot of commitment, we managed to take the lead by scoring two tries. We didn’t give up, +Lep’s+ (Botia) helped us a lot by scratching five balls. When you see the atmosphere there was at the stadium, it’s great to be able to relive that in Bordeaux (where La Rochelle will play their semi-final on April 30 against the English from Exeter, editor’s note). (…) Our team loves big events and likes to respond in this type of event. We have a title to defend and we want to be respected by everyone.»