Sparkling Leinster get it right this time
CHAMPIONS La Rochelle – travel sore but also far from their best this season – were unceremoniously dumped from this season’s Championship Cup as Leinster took revenge against their conquerors in the last two finals.
Leinster went up a couple of gears from their Round of 16 win over Leicester and outplayed La Rochelle in just about every department in front of an appreciative capacity crowd at the Aviva.
La Rochelle haven’t been great starters this season and after a long trip to Cape Town for the Round of 16 last week and then the even longer return journey to Ireland this week they were disastrously slow out of the blocks this time round.
Leinster, with so much revenge and beef in this game, were however in the zone and built their lead steadily with three first-half penalties from Ross Byrne who was striking the ball beautifully and two converted tries, although in truth Leinster also butchered a couple of other chances.
The Leinster tries were well deserved and hard won, with the first coming from the busy James Lowe on the left wing after a multi-phase attack that spread the ball from one touchline to the other and then back. La Rochelle weren’t happy with Byrne’s final tap on pass which looked forward but officialdom was unmoved.
There was also, outwardly, a degree of doubt
with their second try, from Jamison GibsonPark, but on this occasion referee Karl Dickson and his assistants were vindicated in their decision making. Lowe broke down the blindside and as the defence closed in he executed an out-the-back one-handed flip pass to his scrum-half.
In the blurr of action the ball went forward but what the naked eye missed initially was that having gone out of his hands legally, the ball then bounced forward off Gibson-Park’s shoulder – also legal – before the Kiwi gathered the ball and sprinted home.
At 23-6 it was looking very ominous for the visitors who had been restricted to just two Antoine Hastoy penalties but with the first half in added time they finally embarked on a long period of pressure and forced a lineout five metres out.
Difficult to defend and this time La Rochelle produced the goods with a textbook lineout rumble which forced over their young prop Louis Penverne who looks quite a prospect. Hastoy converted and La Rochelle went down the tunnel just about in the game.
It proved to be an illusion. After the break Leinster redoubled their grip on the game and the result was never in doubt.
The celebrations started pretty much in the 43rd minute with an absolutely stunning try from blindside Ryan Baird who displayed his athleticism and fast feet on the left flank to apply the coup de grace after sublime hands inside him and a well timed final pass from the ubiquitous Lowe.
Byrne added the conversion and from that point it was virtually a lap of honour for Leinster against opponents who simply couldn’t get anything going.
Dan Sheehan, who never has a bad game, sprinted in for a fourth try while on the hour Lowe latched onto a crossfield kick from Robbie Henshaw to add a well taken fifth. It was the last of the scoring. Leinster were sated while La Rochelle at least found the resolve to prevent further carnage. some of the shots that went in on some of their key ball-carriers, who have given good go-forward for them over the last couple of years, so it went a long way towards that performance.
“Jamison Gibson-Park at scrum-half, he is a joy to play with. He keeps the tempo so high and he is so unpredictable but plays within our plan at the same time. The boys are all about running lines off him.”
La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara said: “It’s clear to anyone with a bit of rugby knowledge that the team in blue were the better side. The better team won.”