Hit in the ribs against Bayonne ten days ago, Jonathan Danty has a 5% chance of playing in the Champion Cup semi-final against Exeter on Sunday.
“It would take a miracle,” assured La Rochelle backline coach Sébastien Boboul last Thursday about Jonathan Danty’s participation in the Champion Cup semi-final against Exeter this Sunday. Six days later, the situation has hardly changed, but it is now quantified: “Jonathan Danty is a real outsider for Sunday. There, he is not with the group, he does things with the medical. There is a 5% chance… There’s a plan with him, a plan without him, but when you have a player like that, who’s really different, it’s worth exploring every opportunity to get him on the sheet. I say 5% because it can relapse and that’s something I wouldn’t like. There is a margin of progress which can be fast but I think it will hit on Sunday, ”said La Rochelle manager Ronan O’Gara on Tuesday.
Favre to replace Danty?
The countdown is therefore on for the 30-year-old international center, who has already missed two Champions Cup matches this season, in January during the 3rd and 4th days of the group stage, which did not prevent the champions of Europe to win (against Ulster and Northampton). The Maritimes therefore know how to win without their emblematic No. 12, even if the absence of the one who has played 17 games this season with La Rochelle (including 15 as a starter) would be detrimental. To replace him in the event of a package, Ronan O’Gara should be able to count on Jules Favre (24), Jonathan Danty’s regular replacement, who can play both on the wing AND in the center. After this semi-final, La Rochelle’s next match is scheduled for May 6 in Toulon, the percentage of chances of seeing the former Stade Français player will then perhaps have increased. In the Top 14, the Maritimes are in any case on track to qualify directly for the semi-finals, with their current six-point lead over third place three days from the end.
