TOO STRONG
a bit more relaxing for the last five minutes at the end there, which is a credit for all the work that’s gone in.
“Jacques Nienaber, it’s been a pleasure to have him aboard and he works unbelievably hard in terms of detail he brings to the team from a defensive point of view and lots of other aspects of the game as well in terms of mindset going into the game.
“He has a great presence, brings a lot of experience because, you know, he’s played in these big games, obviously a World Cup which is probably the highest pressure in the game, isn’t it?
Addition
“He’s been a fantastic addition and huge credit to everyone I suppose in a club that allows us to bring him here in the first place as well. He’s been a breath of fresh air.”
The mindset, the physicality, the intent had been on the pitch from minute one while the Leinster fans, noted Cullen, had a particularly noisy day.
“Definitely, they get excited by guys coming in with big hits, which is good,” he added.
“Tadgh Furlong, at the onset, sort of set the tone by picking up Skelton and driving him back and putting in a big hit shortly after that as well and he talked well this week, showed great leadership.
“It is one thing doing it on the field but doing it off the field is the really important, piece so I thought that was a big moment early in the game.”
O’Gara was emotional after, in that trademark ‘flat’ way of his, accepting that when the pressure came they couldn’t find a way.
“The boys are shattered inside in the changing room. They’ve been away, on the road, for 13 days, by choice, but you can see we couldn’t really change speed today
“The Leinster try after the secondhalf restart was a key moment, we were quite happy going in at halftime just 10 points down considering the way the game unfolded but to give a soft score, one they executed well, but it was quite soft for them to go to a 17-point lead again.
“It killed our momentum and we were chasing the game from that and then in the last 30, we were inaccurate in a lot of our basics. There is no place for that in the quarter-finals, so we must get better.”
STADE ROCHELAIS: Leyds; Nowell, Seuteni, Danty, Thomas; Hastoy, Kerr-Barlow; Penverne, Latu, Atonio, Dillane, Skelton, Cancoriet, Botia, Alldritt capt. SUBS; Lespiaucq for (Latu 52), Kaddouri (for Penverne 52), Sclavi (for Atonio 52), Lavault (for Skelton 65), Boudehent (for Cancoriet 62), Tanga (for Botia), Iribaren (for Kerr-Barlow 44), West (for Ledys h/t).
They now sit third in the Six Nations table and will face leaders England next weekend at Twickenham.
“I’m delighted for the girls, to be honest,” head coach Bemand said after the win.
“I keep talking about how hard everyone trains and I keep talking about identity.