Van der Flier says Leinster not burdened by pain

With four meetings in the last three years, there is no shortage of video footage for Leinster and La Rochelle to work off in preparation for Saturday’s mouth-watering Champions Cup quarter-final clash at the Aviva Stadium.

Although the analysis sessions will make for far more pleasant viewing from a La Rochelle perspective, Leinster will still take plenty of encouragement from the manner of their victory over the back-to-back champions in their own backyard last December. On that occasion, Leo Cullen’s side emerged 16-9 winners at Stade Marcel-Deflandre.

In theory, at least, the horrific weather conditions should have played into the hands of Ronan O’Gara’s men, given their superior power game, yet Leinster brilliantly ripped up the script, which gives them a renewed sense of optimism ahead of this weekend’s season-defining game.

“It was very different to the previous two games [that were played] in lovely sunny weather,” Leinster back-row Josh van der Flier (30) reflected.

“It was tough. It’s interesting, in a way, the drier weather, both of those were still one-score games. The wet weather one was a one-score game as well, so they’re still tight games, either way.

“If it’s pouring rain, it levels everyone out and it comes down more to tactics, playing field position right and then physicality. Winning collisions and not giving momentum to the opposition is probably the key it comes down to.

“Hopefully, it’s not raining like that, but it doesn’t bother me too much in the back row. If you think of a lot of their strengths, they’re very good at close-quarters physical battles, like maul, scrum and big ball-carriers running hard.

“So yeah, we take a big confidence boost from it, but we won’t lose any respect for La Rochelle as a team. They’ve shown what they can do over the last few years, they’re a brilliant team.

“We can take confidence from winning a game like that [last December], but it will be a different game this week.”

Of Leinster’s two final defeats to La Rochelle, last year’s 27-26 reverse hurt the most, considering they lost at home.

There may not be any silverware on offer come the final whistle this time around at Lansdowne Road, but spurred on by the hurt of recent seasons, Leinster know that the path to London will open up if they can finally get one over on La Rochelle in a knockout clash.

“They were both painful [defeats], but there was a bit of a compounding effect from the previous year as well,” Van der Flier added.

“Having pretty much all your loved ones there and everything [added to the sense of disappointment]. We had the good side of it with the Grand Slam and Six Nations this year with your family there, but it feels like you have let people down sometimes if everyone comes [to support you] and you don’t perform.

“It was one of the tougher days, but it makes the good times sweeter. That’s the way I look at it.

“Everyone is excited and it doesn’t feel like there is a big burden on people’s shoulders either. We are just excited about the opportunity.”