GIBBES BITES BLUES

BY

LEINSTER were brought down by one of their own in Jono Gibbes, the La Rochelle head coach who helped the Blues to win the Champions Cup three times.

The Kiwi now has the chance to win the Top 14 and European double before leaving for Clermont and Ronan O’gara steps into the hot-seat. Toulouse stands in his team’s way on both fronts.

La Rochelle are a team made up of a hotch-potch of nationalities, in stark contrast to Leinster - who started yesterday with 15 Ireland internationals.

But ex-leinster forwards coach Gibbes (above) believes nationality has nothing to do with success.

“I’ve a lot of experience with different squads, been lucky enough to work in a few different environments and in all honesty, it doesn’t come down to nationality or where you’re born,” he said.

“It comes down to who you are and what kind of people you’ve got.

“Yeah, we’ve got different nationalities but so what? Leinster have got 21 (homegrown players) out of 23.

“I guarantee you that those 21 guys are good lads, they’re good people, they just happen to be born in Leinster, which works for them.

“I was lucky enough to work in Clermont and certainly that was the experience I had there.

“I just think it came back to the quality, quality people again. That’s what we started here.

“We moved a few people out that didn’t have the ambition, didn’t want to contribute and we brought people in and it started to turn around in the right direction.”