The Albany Gazette - Marchant double helps Stade Francais thump La Rochelle to reach semis

It has been a remarkable turnaround for the Parisians this season, based on forward power, having finished 12th a year ago.

Marchant made his second-half contributions in a dominant team performance to set-up a last four tie with Montpellier, who finished second in the table to qualify directly for the semi-finals in Marseille next Saturday.

The 29-year-old winger, who is engaged to ex-England footballer Alan Shearer's daughter Hollie, will leave the French capital for Sale next season, re-qualifying him for England duty having been ineligible while playing club rugby abroad over these last three years.

Marchant's efforts secured a first league knock-out win for the Parisians since 2015, when they won the last of their 14 titles.

But it was up front where the Stade Francais made the difference, as flanker Briatte completed his triple with the last play of the game, while former La Rochelle loose forward Yoan Tanga was one of the players of the match.

Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle had only sneaked into the play-offs with a come-from-behind victory at home to Stade Francais a week ago after an inconsistent season where they were down in 10th place as recently as mid-February.

Centre Jules Favre scored their only points early in the second half of a thoroughly miserable night.

Stade Francais raced into a 19-0 by the break with full-back Leo Barre's touchdown, which started from his own half, the highlight after Briatte had crashed over twice.

Favre's try gave La Rochelle brief hope before Stade Francais ran away with it with another four tries, including one from South African centre Jeremy Ward.

In the other semi-final, record 24-time champions Toulouse will play Racing 92 on Friday in the Mediterranean coastal city after the Parisians ended Pau's unbeaten home league run with a 33-31 win on Saturday night.

- Perpignan stay up -

Earlier, experienced Fiji lock Peceli Yato claimed a double as as Perpignan maintained their French Top 14 status with a 47-24 win at second-tier promotion hopefuls Provence in their end-of-season play-off.

Yato, 33, crossed either side of half-time while Argentina No.8 Joaquin Oviedo crossed on two occasions as the Catalans won the Top 14 'Access Match' for the fourth time in the five years since they were promoted back to the top flight in 2021.

Winger Theo Forner, hooker Igancio Ruiz and centre Jeronimo de la Fuente also scored for the 2009 French champions in a match worth up to a reported 10 million euros ($11.5 million) for the winners.

"I'm feeling a lot of relief," Perpignan head coach Laurent Labit told reporters.

"We'll now try to build a team to avoid experiencing a fifth play-off in six years," he added.

(A.Johnson--TAG)