{"id":3606,"date":"2026-01-18T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/champions-cup-harlequins-shock-la-rochelle-in-france-to-knock-out-previous-winners-northampton-saints-closes-away-from-home-rugby-union-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T03:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:17:04","slug":"champions-cup-harlequins-shock-la-rochelle-in-france-to-knock-out-previous-winners-northampton-saints-closes-away-from-home-rugby-union-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/18\/champions-cup-harlequins-shock-la-rochelle-in-france-to-knock-out-previous-winners-northampton-saints-closes-away-from-home-rugby-union-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions Cup: Harlequins shock La Rochelle in France to knock out previous winners; Northampton Saints closes away from home | Rugby Union News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Harlequins overcame their poor home form to beat La Rochelle 27-17 at the Stade Marcel Deflandre and secure a place at home in the Champions Cup in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

England fly-half Marcus Smith was sent to the sin bin for a challenge on Jules Favre in the 56th minute but on his return, Quins produced a moment of victory for the 2022 and 2023 champions.<\/p>\n

It was Tom Lawday who provided the important points eight minutes from time with a powerful charge down the right wing after seeing the line from Jarrod Evans’ long pass.<\/p>\n

Top scorer Smith converted a try and added a late penalty to start the celebrations, as he left European heavyweights La Rochelle contemplating a shock exit from the competition.<\/p>\n

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With the score tied at 17-17 going into the final 10 minutes, Harlequins held on to pull off a famous victory which meant they finished Pool Three in second place behind Leinster.<\/p>\n

European success has been a refuge for the London club, who finished ninth in the Gallagher Prem and recently issued an apology to fans.<\/p>\n

Northampton Saints closed out the home game in 16 after beating the Scarlets<\/h3>\n

Northampton wings Edoardo Todaro and Ollie Sleightholme did the damage in a 43-28 victory over the Scarlets which earned them a place at home in the round of 16 of the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n

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Italian youngster Todaro showed his finishing spirit to grab a first-half hat-trick and was named man of the match, while Sleightholme came off in the 51st minute.<\/p>\n

When Craig Wright finished off the line, the Saints led 33-14 and appeared to be on the coast, but the Scarlets got a second wind through Sam Costelow and Jac Davies.<\/p>\n

It was tense at Franklin’s Gardens until Anthony Belleau, who continued to stand in for calf injury victim Fin Smith, fired home a penalty in the 76th minute to light the game between the rivals.<\/p>\n

Callum Chick then drove over from close range in added time to give the final result a lopsided look that failed to reflect the Scarlets’ gutsy performance.<\/p>\n

The bonus-point win meant Northampton finished the club’s campaign in second place, four points behind leaders and defending champions Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux secured the No 1 seed as Bristol broke the tie<\/h3>\n

Bristol lost their battle with Bordeaux for first place in Pool Four of the Champions Cup after falling 27-15 at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n

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The current European champions did a lot of damage in the first half with Gabriel Oghre’s try which was soon made good by Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s second and Nicolas Depoortere’s third.<\/p>\n

All three of Bordeaux’s tries came with Bristol dangerously alive in wet conditions with loose kicking and poor decision-making contributing to their 17-5 deficit.<\/p>\n

The Bears met with Benhard Janse van Rensburg showing the ability to cross in the 65th minute but they continued to make mistakes that allowed the visitors to get on top.<\/p>\n

Frenchman Bielle-Biarrey scored a superb strike to claim the man of the match award and the brilliant Matthieu Jalibert added two penalties in a tight final for the Top 14 heavyweights.<\/p>\n

The result means that Bordeaux finish top of the group to get home advantage until the semi-finals stage, while Bristol must attend their round of 16 match.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harlequins overcame their poor home form to beat La Rochelle 27-17 at the Stade Marcel Deflandre and secure a place at home in the Champions Cup in the round of 16. England fly-half Marcus Smith was sent to the sin bin for a challenge on Jules Favre in the 56th minute but on his return, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3608,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions\/3608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}