Ronan O'Gara rages at 'unacceptable' La Rochelle defeat

La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara lamented an "unacceptable defeat" after his team fell to a loss that obliterated their hopes of progressing to the Champions Cup knockout stages.

Harlequins defied their awful domestic form to beat the Frenchmen 27-17 at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

England out-half Marcus Smith was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Jules Favre in the 56th minute but upon his return, Quins produced the match-winning moment against the 2022 and 2023 champions.

Tom Lawday got the crucial score with eight minutes remaining by storming over with a strong run down the right wing. Man of the match Smith converted the try and added a late penalty to seal it.

Harlequins finished Pool Three in second place behind Leinster, with La Rochelle will now heading for the Challenge Cup, where they'll face Newcastle next, with a possible quarter-final against Ulster also ahead.

None of that was of any consolation to O'Gara, who was scathing in his assessment of La Rochelle's performance.

"The club and I, we lost big tonight, it's unacceptable," he said in quotes carried by L'Equipe.

"It's not possible, especially when you look at the number of opportunities we have to stay in the competition. I'm even more frustrated.

"It's an unacceptable defeat. I would like to cry, I would like to complain, to do a lot of things. I anticipated after last Saturday (the 25-24 defeat to Leinster) that it was going to be difficult. We relaxed, we thought it was going to be okay for 80 minutes, but it's never like that in sport.

"We did the opposite of last week. We are fighting ourselves."

When asked about the focus now turning to the Top 14 and Challenge Cup, O'Gara interjected to say: "I anticipate your question but you have no idea of the frustration, the disappointment, the rage in my head to see this in front of our fans who pay a lot of money to be there on a Sunday."