La Rochelle have questioned the wisdom of travelling back and forth from South Africa ahead of their Investec Champions Cup game with the Stormers.<\/p>\n
The two-time winners will take on John Dobson\u2019s outfit this Saturday, a week after their opening match of the tournament against Leicester Tigers.<\/p>\n
Ronan O\u2019Gara\u2019s<\/a> men will then head back to France ahead of the Christmas and New Year Top 14 fixtures, where they face Bayonne, Toulouse and Toulon over consecutive weekends before the Champions Cup<\/a> resumes.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, it\u2019s always a pain to have a whole day of travel to go to another country where it\u2019s not the same season, whereas in Europe, you can make a maximum three-hour trip by plane, and the matter is settled,\u201d centre Jules Favre wrote in his L\u2019Equipe column,<\/p>\n \u201cHere, you leave on Sunday after the match, you still have a lot of aches and pains, you spend a day travelling on the plane, in airports, on buses, and you don\u2019t train where you usually train.\u201d<\/p>\n Scathing assessment<\/p>\n La Rochelle coach Romain Carmignani was far more scathing in his assessment and suggested that there was a player welfare issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2019s organising this, but there are questions to be asked, especially about the players\u2019 health,\u201d Carmignani told Rugbyrama.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking them play there in the rain, then moving to 30-degree weather, and then the following weekend making them play in 2.3-degree weather again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure that\u2019s a good idea. It\u2019s all about business. It\u2019s truly ridiculous and stupid!\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Youngs: Leinster\u2019s \u2018pretty mega\u2019 moment and the \u2018intriguing\u2019 Investec Champions Cup game that will tell if Glasgow \u2018are genuinely in the mix\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n