Billy Vunipola hobbled away from Stade Marcel-Deflandre on crutches after injuring his knee midway through the first half of this bruising afternoon for Saracens on the Atlantic coast as the Premiership pacesetters limped out of the Champions Cup. The bludgeoning power of the champions ensured a home semi-final with Exeter in Bordeaux and the very real prospect of an all-French final in Dublin next month.
La Rochelle, with their monstrous pack, could not match the colour and panache that had helped Toulouse sweep the Sharks aside 24 hours earlier but they are an unstoppable force in this mood and at this stadium they have now won 11 successive matches in Europe. Two tries from La Rochelle’s All Blacks scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow were the difference between the sides but, in truth, the scoreline flattered Saracens.
The European champions had not been at their best against Gloucester the previous week but were back to their ruthless best at the breakdown. Saracens, ill-disciplined and inaccurate in the execution of their attacking moves, looked nothing like the side that has been so dominant in the Premiership this season.
The port of La Rochelle may only have a population of 75,000 but most of them seemed to have turned up at their fortress, so loud was the volume on a sunny afternoon of perfect spring weather. The game emphasised the growing gulf between the elite Top 14 clubs and their English counterparts; Billy Vunipola’s wounded knee, an injury that will bring his season to a premature end, somehow symbolic of the fortunes of the domestic and national game back home.
Saracens knew that a storm was going to blow in on the Bay of Biscay and sure enough La Rochelle pinned them back in their own half in the early stages, Antoine Hastoy landing two penalties and striking an upright with a third attempt.
The visitors weathered that early squall but if the sight of first Jamie George having treatment to an injured knee was bad enough, seeing Billy Vunipola carried off on a stretcher was a crushing blow for Saracens on a day they needed all the power they could muster from their England international forwards.
George played on and Owen Farrell and Hastoy traded penalties but La Rochelle’s pack battered their way through the Saracens defence with a series of drives that allowed Kerr-Barlow to dart over, eluding Alex Goode on a curving run to the line.
Just before the hour mark Levani Botia’s storming run gave Kerr-Barlow his chance for a second try and the game was as good as over. Eroni Mawi, a replacement prop for Saracens, scored a try after a surge by the pack from a lineout and Ben Earl was held up just over the line after Brice Dulin had been shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Alex Lewington.
Saracens ended defiantly but were also reduced to 14 men when Tom Woolstencroft, their replacement hooker, ended up in the sin-bin after a clash of heads with the former Saracen Will Skelton.
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the replacement Yoan Tanga breached the Saracens defence a third time but the try was ruled out after an intervention from the TMO, Joy Neville, who spotted a slight knock-on at the lineout. Tanga had replaced the man-of-the-match Botia after an hour. The Fijian back-rower Botia is nicknamed “The Demolition Man” in these parts and he helped reduce Saracens’ European ambitions to rubble.
