LA ROCHELLE’S head coach, the former Ireland star, Ronan O’Gara, revealed there had been a plan to target George Barton.
He said: “We were supposed to go after him but we didn’t do that in the end. He had a good game but we wanted to make it much harder for him.
“There are some very good players in our team and we have a great mix and variety. There is a big emphasis in the northern hemisphere on the ruck but what I learned from my time at Crusaders was that you need to keep the ball alive.”
La Rochelle’s director of rugby, Jono Gibbes, said: “We realised they weren’t going to give up. We wa...