La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara was delighted to get his side's first win in the Heineken Champions Cup after a sleepless few weeks.
The former Ireland international was on Off The Ball and was relieved to beat Glasgow at Scotstoun Stadium despite La Rochelle being unable to qualify for the quarter-finals.
“It’s a competition that has given me such memories and souvenirs. But obviously, it’s a team game, management game and players game nowadays.
“But where I came from the zero out of three - I didn’t sleep well for those previous few weeks,” O’Gara said.
La Rochelle haven’t been bad in the Heineken Champions Cup this season but had failed to win a game going into Round 4 after a narrow loss to Glasgow and a red card scuppered their chances against Sale.
“Sale away - silly red card. Very silly, very frustrating. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that you could get a result or even one point over there.
“Then again, Glasgow at home - a game we should never have lost. We were in control of it but we lacked the killer instinct,” O’Gara said.
The head coach felt that his side need to be smarter in future games and although they won at the weekend, there are certain areas they can work on.
“It was pleasing. Yes, as you say, we conceded early from a driving maul from a situation where you have a really promising young back-row player that’s playing away but he doesn’t really understand the consequences of not rolling away in the tackle.
“For him, it’s probably giving away a penalty. But the message as a coaching staff was trying to deliver was, ‘Where was that next lineout from the penalty on a desperate night for rugby?’
“It was five metres from our line. While there’s no real danger or no real threat just give them the ball,” O’Gara said.
'We want to scrap for second place'
While the option of knockout European rugby is out of reach for his side, O’Gara is still eager for La Rochelle to win their remaining games.
“There is big learnings but it’s small margins. You have to be ambitious in terms of the Champions Cup.
“It’s where we want to be and zero out of three you’re becoming a bit of a laughing stock. Thankfully away from home that puts a little bit of value back in your club.
“It’s all well and good being involved but it wouldn’t be the mindset of the club or particularly of the coaching group… We want to scrap it out for second place, that’s for sure,” O’Gara said.
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