Leinster have won their last two encounters against La Rochelle - ROG isn't the bogeyman anymore
The clash is, on paper, a pool game but it would be mistaken to underestimate its importance as the result will define the home/away path for both clubs.
Leinster's relationship with La Rochelle has been underpinned by recent Champions Cup disappointment and, of course, skirmishing with their coach Ronan O'Gara!
But the reality is that the four-star Irish province's relationship with the two-star French arrivistes is defined ever-so simply - by results.
As it stands the clubs have met five times in the last five seasons, mainly at the business end of the Champions Cup.
READ MORE: Kellie Harrington back training with Irish boxing team but gives definitive answer on her future
La Rochelle won the 2021 semi-final 32-23 on their own turf; La Rochelle also won the 2022 and 2023 finals, 24-21 and 27-26 in Marseilles and Dublin, respectively.
Following which Leinster turned the tables twice last season, posting a 16-9 pool win in France in December before coupling it with a convincing 40-13 quarter-final victory in May.
The clubs go again on Sunday in la Rochelle, the third of four ties the teams play before their (grotesquely complicated) six club pool offers up four Round of 16 qualifiers.
But while the coming clash is, on paper, a pool game it would be mistaken to underestimate its importance as the result will define the knockout status of both clubs.
The winner will most likely get a home-advantage run to the final in Cardiff on May 24 while the loser will most likely find themselves on the road by the quarter-final.
Moreover it is a fixture complicated by the games to come in the pool with the French side facing a trip to URC downtable Italians Benetton; the Irish province, by contrast, have an extremely tricky six-day turnaround tie against English league leaders Bath at the Aviva.
Leinster, agrees Garry Ringrose, are entitled to feel this could be a season-defining two weekends and admits they have been preparing, head down, accordingly.
"After the Munster game, having a few days, a long weekend and a training week last week, it has been just all La Rochelle.
"And it would be bad prep if I, or any of us look beyond that. It takes away from that. It has been very short term focus for us.
"We know that if you aren't all in against them, and even when you are, they have the ability to beat you.
"We learned the hard way in a couple of finals and then even the two battles last year, we fell on the right side of the result but it took everything."
La Rochelle had proved a difficult side for Leinster to counter, their kicking game allied to their emphasis on physicality seemed to discomfort the Blues.
"Physically they take it to you. They are so well drilled and well-oiled at the set-piece and how they defend, they're very in-sync.
"And even with the personnel changes amongst them, mostly you don't know what the 23 is going to be but you're looking across all the individuals and games they've played. For the most part, they're unbelievably in-sync and put you under massive pressure.
"Nothing's changed from that perspective, you have to front up against them. When a Leinster jersey meets a La Rochelle jersey it's a battle or a test whether you have the ball or not, they can dominate you.
"We still look at them as one of the best teams and you have got to be at the races, as they say, to have any chance to beat them."
The suggestion last term was that the arrival of the pragmatic South African Jacques Nienaber proved the difference, the Leinster group toughened up.
Continues Ringrose: “I guess while defensively working with Jacques, we’re still learning, and there is still stuff we’re maybe not getting right and working at and trying to be quicker and be more instinctive.
"We are just repping that in training as much as possible and in games you get exposed to that with a bit more consequence obviously.
"We like to think we’ve improved and got better defensively, and then attack, I guess, the scoreline probably flatters. Whether we can get things to click a little bit better is the challenge for us.
"It was obviously a wet day the last time we played over there (December's 2023's pool game) and that’s the last time I was playing. There wasn’t a lot of attacking, there was a lot of kicking, a lot of set-pieces and scrums and mauls and going close to the line.
"So we’ll have to be ready in that perspective but if it is a bit dryer, get our set-piece starters right and then because kicking is a big part of the game for us, to be ready to go off the back of that."
La Rochelle, at home last weekend, beat Toulouse 22-19 with some general hand-wringing around the result not least as the reigning European and Top 14 champions were deemed to have sent up an irredeemingly weak side and almost came away with a result.
"I'm sure there's stuff that they will want to look at and I've no doubt will improve on.
"So I've no doubt they'll review and analyse and be better. They still won at the end of the day and that's what a team like them do consistently. So, as I said, they won. They always, you know, find a way to win and I'm sure they'll be better in some areas too.
"I guess similarly, look at our last game against Munster, and maybe the scoreline towards the end flatters us.
"We kind of held out a bit at the start of the second-half and even during the first-half the scoreline could have looked a bit different, with a different lens or in a different light."
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
