Gloucester Rugby will be hoping that lightning doesn’t strike twice when they face French opposition for the second time in the Heineken Champions Cup, hosting La Rochelle in the Round of 16 at Kingsholm. The Gallagher Premiership side were dismantled by Lyon in the pool stage of this year's competition, falling to a 55-10 defeat in the opening round of action. Gloucester re-grouped in the second round of fixtures, producing a stunning display to defeat Ulster Rugby 38-34. They face a La Rochelle side that have only taken to the field once in this season’s Heineken Champions Cup campaign in a low-scoring thriller in the Scottish capital, triumphing 13-8 over Edinburgh Rugby - but will need to overturn their historical record against Gloucester. The action at Kingsholm begins at 20:00 (UK and Irish time) on April 2 and will be available to watch on BT Sport in the United Kingdom and beIN SPORTS in France. Pool positions Gloucester Rugby; 8th Pool B; 5 points La Rochelle; 4th Pool A; 9 points Head-to-head record Gloucester Rugby wins: 6 Draws: 0 La Rochelle wins: 1 Leading 2020/21 points-scorers Gloucester Rugby: Lloyd Evans (9) La Rochelle: Raymond Rhule, Jérémy Sinzelle (5) https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1376596120378433540 Key quote

Mark Atkinson (Gloucester): “We are just starting to find the danger men. We’ve got world class men in the wide channels so we need to give them the ball and let them do stuff. There’s no point us slow boys keeping the ball inside and we’ve probably been doing that too much so give it to some threatening runners and see what they can do.”

Match facts

Gloucester and La Rochelle have never met before in the Heineken Champions Cup, however they have clashed nine times before in the Challenge Cup.
Gloucester have won seven of their previous nine meetings with La Rochelle (all Challenge Cup), including three of their four home games against them.
Gloucester have won their last three home games in the Heineken Champions Cup; they’ve not enjoyed a longer winning run at Kingsholm since a five-game streak between 2006 and 2008.
La Rochelle have played four previous away games against Premiership teams in the Heineken Champions Cup, they won the first of those (v Harlequins) but have lost the three subsequent games.
Gloucester have lost five of their last six Heineken Champions Cup games against TOP 14 opposition, including two losses where they had led at half-time.