ROG STEALS THE SHOW YET AGAIN
La Rochelle were perfectly prepared to ruin Leinster’s five-star party
PRESSURE does strange things to people. In the seconds leading up to kick-off, the TV cameras flashed to the La Rochelle dressing room and there was Dany Priso emerging into the tunnel. The French loosehead prop wore a look resembling Mike Tyson before a heavyweight bout. Priso was pumped for this. La Rochelle were ready for a scrap.
This was their third final in a row. They fell at the final hurdle in the Top14 and this competition last season. In Ronan O’Gara, they had a coach who knows all about taking the fight to Leinster. He knows all about adversity in this tournament as well. History dictates that you need to experience a bit of pain before the glory days. The Corkman lost two of these finals with Munster as a player before the province broke the glass ceiling and secured the Holy Grail in 2006.
Now, he follows Leo Cullen in becoming a European champion, as a player and a coach. Tactically, this was a masterclass from the former Munster out-half. Leinster were the most lethal attacking team in this competition all season. They stuck 40 points on Toulouse in an utterly one-side semi-final. They were primed for this, we had been informed in recent weeks.
All the frontliners had rested up while their second-string did yet another demolition job on Munster in the URC last weekend. They had learned the lessons of previous seasons when Saracens (twice) and La Rochelle had derailed their bid for a fifth title and that coveted fifth star on the jersey. Their mobile, dynamic pack, replete with seven Ireland internationals, their expanded attacking game plan and their stellar bench would make the difference in Marseille, apparently.
O’Gara and this La Rochelle side didn’t get the memo. The boss had a plan and his players (almost) executed it to perfection throughout an absorbing contest.
No one is better at disrupting opposition ball and making the breakdown a spider’s web of mayhem than the Top14 giants from the Atlantic coast. In these pages a few weeks ago, Mike Prendergast – en route to Munster via Racing 92 – warned as much. La Rochelle had no shortage of tough customers who suction onto the ball like limpets. Leinster’s game is all about quick ball. Their ruck speed has been highlighted time and again.
La Rochelle set up speed bumps all evening.
Without their usual speed of possession, Leinster couldn’t get on the front foot and, crucially, they couldn’t settle into their usual rhythm. They weren’t as slick as usual. Players were checking for passes. The little deft touches weren’t going to hand. This was going to be a scrap. If Leinster were going to win their first title since 2018, they were going to have to dig it out.
Some stepped up. Jamison GibsonPark, Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw spring to mind. Too many of them didn’t save their best for last, however, and that will hurt the most in the days ahead.
O’Gara and his crew were ready for a fight. They bossed a lot of the close quarters stuff. Having Will Skelton fit was a game changer as well. Cullen may have looked to the heavens with a rueful glance when he got word that the Australian behemoth was nearing a return to action ahead of the finale.
The monstrous Wallaby didn’t quite repeat his previous demolition jobs of St James’ Park and Stade Marcel Deflandre, but he was a menacing presence in the trenches throughout.
The fact Skelton went the full 80 minutes is testament to O’Gara influence on a player who has battled the bulge throughout a fascinating career. He was once called out by his head coach after a costly defeat in the league a few years ago. O’Gara gave him the hairdryer treatment back then. It did the trick. Skelton gave O’Gara a bear hug after the final whistle. It was a staggering shift from a player with just 14 minutes of rugby under his belt this year.
Before he was drenched by his players during his interview on live TV, O’Gara revealed the nucleus of his gameplan to tame this seemingly unstoppable Leinster side. Stand off them and it’s going to be a long day. Get stuck in, disrupt their flow and take away their space and, suddenly, they look beatable.
Putting them under pressure was going to be key. La Rochelle had the muscle for such an assignment. Crucially, they also had a gameplan.
The French side clearly had the edge in the scrum. Their kicking game and rush defence was on point. Add in the physicality of Uini Atonio, Skelton and Grégory Alldritt, and they had Leinster in all kinds of trouble. They were playing
The French side had a coach who knew all about taking the fight to Leinster
plenty of rugby as well. Raymond Rhule had thrown down the gauntlet earlier this week.
‘We’ll play like dogs, let nothing go. It’s a final, you don’t need to play nice rugby, just win,’ the flying wing had promised earlier this week.
The South African speedster has found his mojo in La Rochelle after something of a nomadic career. He was the French outfit’s most dangerous attacking threat throughout the opening 40, combining to devastating effect with his fellow wing and countryman Dillyn Leyds for the opening try of the game.
Leinster couldn’t find a way through this staunch French defence though. They had to settle for a quartet of penalties from the boot of Sexton before the break.
When the veteran out-half nudged his side into a 18-10 lead, it felt like the momentum was with the Blues. What did we say about pressure? When Sexton tried to run a long kick from deep, his slow sidestep did not fool Thomas Berjon, the young La Rochelle scrum-half who led a manic chase downfield. Hugo
Keenan was on hand to help out his skipper but the full-back was then hunted down. Penalty, La Rochelle. They would maul their hooker Pierre Bourgarit over the line for a momentum-changing score.
Even when their lock Thomas Lavault was yellow carded for the daftest of trips on Gibson-Park, it still felt like La Rochelle were in the ascendency. And so it proved with their relentless late raid and Arthur Retiere’s try at the death.
Talk of the five stars proved cheap. A new name is on the trophy now. La Rochelle following in the footsteps of Brive, Toulouse and Toulon.
‘This is the beginning of something special,’ was O’Gara’s summation after the game. Mick Galway uttered very similar words after Munster’s maiden Heineken Cup final failure against Northampton in 2000. O’Gara would spearhead a decade of dominance as a player back then. He is set to repeat the feat from the coaches box now.
He had his troops geared up to go the 12 rounds. Leinster were on the ropes long before the end. They thought they might be saved by the bell. ROG and Co had other ideas. The pressure told eventually.