If Leinster want to feel better about their lineout then they should review La Rochelle's recent struggles in that area.
Ronan O'Gara said Saturday's win over a callow Toulouse side felt like "defeat", as they needed a penalty with the last kick of the game to claim a 22-19 success.
Chief among their problems was a misfiring lineout operation, with the Top 14 champions stealing three throws in a manner reminiscent of Clermont's success in that area when they lost to Leinster at Aviva Stadium in round two.
The La Rochelle scrum also looked shaky, and the breakdown area was messy across what was a poor spectacle between the last two champions of Europe.
Leinster and La Rochelle have previous.
When they met in this fixture last season, Leinster had lost three of their previous meetings, famously in the 2022 and 2023 finals and in the 2021 semi.
Leo Cullen's side emerged with a confidence-boosting 16-9 success from a rain-lashed Stade Marcel-Deflandre, paving the way to another final appearance, which also included a quarter-final demolition job of the then champions.
Other iterations of Leinster wouldn't have been up for the task, but Joe McCarthy, sin-binned in the first-half, James Ryan and Caelan Doris revelled in the conditions.
"It was real tough conditions and hard to get anything going," recalled Ireland lock McCarthy of the game, in which Jordan Larmour scored the only try.
"We took an opportunity in their 22, there wasn’t many of them.
"We got on top in the set-piece, mainly the lineout. We were good at stopping their maul, winning some ball in the air so that’s a big part, going after the set-piece and trying to be dominant there.
"[The win in La Rochelle] did give us a bit of confidence because they were the champions of last season and we beat them in their place.
Of all the boring rugby cliches, 'the game will be decided up front’ applies more to this fixture than most.
"I absolutely love that, it’s physical, you get to challenge yourself and see where you are at against the best players," said McCarthy, the 23-year-old in line for a 40th club appearance.
"I have a load of confidence in our scrum, lineout and maul. With the players there’s a lot of confidence but we still have to deliver at the weekend.
"They are class, they are the best games to play in. La Rochelle have one of the biggest packs in Europe. [But] In fairness our pack is pretty big these days as well."
While the four-time champions have had the better of recent meetings, and La Rochelle, sixth in the Top 14, are out of sorts, McCarthy is expecting another brutal encounter.
"We are preparing to be at our absolute best because I know La Rochelle will probably lift their game against us, because we’ve had a lot of competitive battles over the last few years," he said.
"[The previous matches do] add a different factor and probably brings a bit more edge to the game."
