RUGBY Jacques aims to Roch’ the boat

‘Bigger’ French side just not true

THREE successive Champions Cup knock-out defeats to La Rochelle — semi-final, final and final — left Leinster watching from the sideline as Toulouse became the first club to pin a fifth star on their shirts.

But double-RWC winning coach Jacques Nienaber has no such baggage; he has faced Ronan O’Gara’s club once, plotting a 16-9 win last December at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

He aims to repeat the dose at the Aviva on Saturday, and keep the Blues on course for a semi-final against the winners of Northampton-Bulls.

“It’s the biggest match of the season so far, because it is the quarter-final of Europe,”says Nienaber evenly.

“Last week was the biggest one and then now this one — every knockout game is the biggest one of the season because that’s the thing, there is no tomorrow if you lose.

“So, yes, it is definitely the biggest game of the season for the organisation because it is the quarter-final of Europe and this club prizes this competition.”

Nienaber doesn’t believe for a moment Leinster (or Ireland) lose to teams such as La Rochelle (or South Africa) because they are bullied by bigger physical specimens.

“That narrative, how can I put it, the reality is … well ... different,”he shrugs.“I can’t talk about what the La Rochelle team will look like and obviously, we are still in the process of selecting our team.

“But what I will talk about is, if you look at the Ireland team, the one that I know because at the World Cup it was a reality.

“Ireland were the second biggest team in the World Cup if you look at weight, I think only Tonga were heavier — if you take the 33 man squad’s weights and divide it by 33,

Ireland were the biggest.

“Ireland have the biggest backs in the world in rugby currently so yes, there will be a narrative that they are bigger, they are heavier, they are bigger bullies.

“But if you look at the reality and just look at the size of Irish players in the Irish national side compared to other national sides around the world, in the Tier One nations there isn’t a bigger, heavier side than Ireland.”

La Rochelle have, he admits, big units in Uini Atonio, Will Skelton, Jonathan Dante and others but that doesn’t define their game although size matters at certain times.

“They have a strong set-piece and they are back-to-back European champions for a reason and they lost in the final of the Top 14 last season, so obviously they do really well in knock-out games.

Momentum

“It sounds like a cliche but to be successful at knock-outs or any rugby game you have to be dominant at your set-piece, which they are, they’ve got a good set-piece “They’ve got big ball carriers that give them momentum and that gets them on the front foot.

“So when they’ve set-piece on their terms, they get momentum on their terms and then they’ve got flashy players that can create spectacles, and the South African lads I know that play on the wing can create magic.

“So they’ve got a good blend and they understand what their DNA is, and are true to that.” Beating La Rochelle is not about reaching out to the biggest to combat them, it is selecting those who are able to keep their heads under pressure: “You’ve got to be accurate, you’ve got to have intent, you’ve got to have energy and you need to be physical, and you need to be aligned and accurate in your plan. “That’s what gets you across the line.

“So let’s start it in this way, if you look at it individually, you have to be physical, you have to have a work ethic.

You have to make sure on the day the individual brings that to that party.

“Then from a team perspective you have to make sure that you’re aligned, we’ve got to know what we’ve got to do in attack and defence and then on the day you have to be accurate.

“And then sometimes when both teams bring that and there’s parity, and they bring intensity and physicality, we have a plan, they have a good plan, they execute their plan and we execute our plan, then you need a little bit of luck sometimes.”

Meanwhile, Leinster say Robbie Henshaw,

Hugo Keenan, Ciaran

Frawley and Andrew

Porter have shown no after-effects from knocks picked up against Leicester Tigers and are available for Saturday.

Cian Healy is doubtful, Charlie Ngatai and Jimmy O’Brien are back ‘in the mix’ but there is still conflicting news about Garry Ringrose, with a specific mention of ‘timing’ — Ringrose is currently running at 40 per cent missed tackles at Test level (according to the official IRFU website statistics).

“He started training with us today,”says Nienaber.“To get selection, he has done unit sessions but this was his first team run session.

“He must be comfortable as a player and confident because he hasn’t played for a while and then we have to have confidence in him from a coaching perspective and from the players around him and how he is slotting in and his timing.

“Then there is a layer above that, the medical team must be confident that he is fully medically fit.

“It’s nice to have him back.” Ringrose is thus unlikely to start.