There were muted celebrations for La Rochelle in the dying moments last weekend, as Antoine Hastoy kicked them to victory in their 100th consecutive sold out home game at Stade Marcel Deflandre against Toulouse.
A win is a win, despite Toulouse picking a rotated and young squad to travel to La Rochelle. It gives La Rochelle a little momentum going into a Champions Cup battle against Leinster.
The Irish side spent the weekend with their feet up, readying themselves for their toughest battle this season.
While there are question marks around Leinster's 'cup final’ approach this season, they’re nine from nine in the BKT URC with nearly maximum points. The game that they’re building is made for these types of tight and physical clashes against powerful French teams.
The last time the sides met was in the quarte-final of the competition last season. It was anything but a tight affair. La Rochelle had come off the back of a long trip to South Africa in the previous round. With a short turnaround Ronan O’Gara brought his team to his home club in Cork.
I was lucky to experience their training week. It was a week of great insights and a look at the inclusive, open environment that O’Gara speaks of. Nothing was hidden. We knew what they planned to do to Leinster. Yet, they never did it. Leinster blew them away.
La Rochelle struggled that week with injuries and some senior players were heavily restricted with training minutes. Some didn’t train at all.
One player flew home for personal reasons before meeting the team again. Their training was more technical than physical but they still believed they had the formula to beat Leinster. You’d expect a reaction. This is a game they’ve been waiting for to seek revenge.
However, they’ll be doing so without a few key players. Jonathan Danty has been ruled out. He’s a key part of any gainline battle, something that’s even more important in big Champions Cup games where there's a power struggle. Teddy Thomas is suspended, and Dillyn Leyds will be recovering from a HIA in the closing moments against Toulouse last week.
La Rochelle are a similar side now to the team that faced Leinster the last time round. There’s no additional firepower. There aren’t many surprises. They can still do a job, and they sparked into action for brief periods last weekend against Toulouse. Their ability is obvious, and the power can be unstoppable.
Leinster on the other hand have made huge additions to their team, mainly RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett. These are the games that they recruited them for. Whether Snyman starts or not, he adds a totally different dynamic to their squad, while Barrett has been performing on another level.
La Rochelle struggled to protect their own ball at the breakdown against a heavily rotated Toulouse. They know the Leinster threat at the breakdown, not only the direct poach threat, but more so the disruption that Leinster pride themselves on through their captain Caelan Doris.
It was a feature of their game before Jacques Nienaber was added to their coaching ticket, and it’s even more heavily encouraged since then. It’s one of the key aspects of a rugby match regardless, but La Rochelle will need to mind their own ball in attack and find a clever strategy to slow Leinster’s relentless attack.
An away game in France will be just the problem that is needed to test Sam Prendergast too. He has cruised through every exam so far; this will be a crucial game in deciding his fate before the Six Nations. He has an opportunity to drive Leinster to victory at the Stade Marcel Deflandre and take the next step in his progressing career.
O’Gara was open about using Ross Byrne’s channel as an attacking tactic last year. It never materialised and O’Gara was quite up front about how Byrne stood up to the task. Maybe it won’t be as blatant this time around, but I’d expect Prendergast to get some extra attention at the weekend. And somehow, I think he will revel in the challenge.
La Rochelle is a beautiful town with a heavily engaged fan base. I made my first Munster senior appearance there in a pre-season friendly. Strangely, I played on the wing for 20 minutes, replacing our captain, Doug Howlett. I spent 60 minutes of that game taking in the atmosphere from a seat on the bench, enveloped by the crowd chanting in the searing August heat.
A lot has changed about La Rochelle since then. The sellout crowd is still present, their engagement has increased if anything. Their status in the Top 14 is different from the Pro D2 team that they were then. They have a very different game structure now with a Corkman in charge. The only name recognisable from the team sheet in that 2012 friendly is Uini Atonio.
This will be far from a pre-season friendly atmosphere in the sun when Leinster arrive in town. It will be a raucous and hard-fought Champions Cup game as we get through to the other side of the winter round-robin stage.
In their five meetings so far, La Rochelle edge the head-to-head 3-2. However, Leinster have won in La Rochelle in a group game before and have the most recent psychological edge from last season’s quarter-final. They’ll have no fear going to France. They’re favourites to win and rightly so.
La Rochelle will be up against it on Sunday. But they still have a love for this competition, bred into them by O’Gara himself. They’ve beaten Bristol easily at home, and ground out a result against Johann Van Graan’s Bath at the Rec. They’ll see Leinster as a huge scalp to kick their season on.
A loss won’t be detrimental either, due to the current Champions Cup format, however a win could shake things up and rearrange the odds of either side winning this competition. Leinster are battling with Toulouse for the favourites tag, with Bordeaux and La Rochelle also in the conversation.
Criticism of the quality of Champions Cup ties has been warranted, but this is one of those true battles of champions and possibly the clash of Round 3.
