 There was a slim chance Leeds could stay up due to the controversial minimum standards entry (which had denied Alfie's former team Rotherham all those years ago) but with the victory of Worcester Warriors in the Championship Playoffs, Leeds were down and Alfie decided to leave England after 9 seasons to join French side La Rochelle playing in the second division of French rugby.Although he was dropping a division to play rugby for La Rochelle in the 2011–12 Rugby Pro D2 season, the French second division was far stronger than the English equivalent in terms of both finances and supporter attendances, and La Rochelle were an ambitious club who had only just been relegated from the Top 14.In a very competitive division, La Rochelle finished 5th in the regular season, just qualifying for the end of season playoffs (the league champions went up straight away leaving 2nd - 5th in the playoffs).