O’Gara will relish challenge of taking on the four-time champions says O’Driscoll
BRIAN O’DRISCOLL believes his old Ireland colleague and Munster rival Ronan O’Gara will relish a crack at Leinster in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final in three weeks’ time.
O’Gara’s La Rochelle will host the four-time champions in a mouth-watering last-four tie on the weekend of April 30/May 1/2, with Toulouse hosting Bordeaux-Begles in the other semi-final.
The French side are in the semifinal for the first time on the back of a sensational 45-21 win at home to Sale Sharks, but O’Driscoll believes they’ll face a tougher opponent in his former province.
However, he says O’Gara will be licking his lips at the prospect.
“Straight away you think ROG v Leinster, we had so many tussles with his Munster side. They had the edge on us at the beginning, Leinster managed to turn it around,” he told BT Sport.
“Now, as a coach, I think he’ll relish taking on a highlyfancied Leinster team over in La Rochelle. The brand he’s got his team playing, Leinster don’t come across that very often. It’s all-encompassing, it’s fast, it’s frenetic.
“I do feel as though they’ll look at the teams that beat La Rochelle – Exeter had a great victory there last season – and they’ll try and understand what they managed to do to unlock them in their back yard.”
O’Driscoll was impressed with how Leinster beat the Chiefs at Sandy Park.
“They haven’t had to kick into that fourth or fifth gear too often this season. It’s disrespectful to say they won the PRO14 at a canter but they did it without having to push themselves.
“Yes, they lost a couple of games but it did feel as though they went to a level I hadn’t seen from them that often (against Exeter) because they didn’t have to go there.
“It does feel like they’re raising their game to another level.”
Two tries in the opening 12 minutes of the second half from wing Raymond Rhule put paid to Sale’s hopes on Saturday and ensured La Rochelle reached the last four of the competition for the first time.
The home side scored two tries in the first half to build up a ninepoint lead, but Sale hit back with a great score of their own on the stroke of half-time to close the gap to two points and kept the game in the melting pot.
But then came Rhule’s double, followed by two more from centre Geoffrey Doumayrou and the French side were on their way to the final four.
Byron McGuigan’s late consolation try for the visitors did little to hide the fact Sale had been dominated physically and outgunned behind.
Sale were not as sharp as they had been the previous weekend, when they tore the Scarlets to shreds with six tries in a 57-14 demolition at Parc y Scarlets.