Ronan O'Gara: Why Leinster paid heavy price for no Six Nations
Leinster players following their side's defeat in the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Saracens. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Enjoyed an hour’s kicking work with one of our out-halves, Jules Plisson, the other morning. Working on all the old routines. Kicking down the tramlines, punting, punting and more punting. Trying all sorts. Spirals, one-bounce spirals, end over end, left foot, right foot, drop goals, bombs, kicking corners.
Then he finished up a tidy’s hour’s work with a few goal-kicks.
Plisson wants it bad. He’s knocking the door down. I love that in a player. He’s 29 but still eyeing the 2023 World Cup in France. Things went sour for him at Stade Francais under Heyneke Meyer, with little game time but the one upside is he had Mike Prendergast and Paul O’Connell there for a year.
He likes the Irish mentality. He is a classic never judge a book by the cover. He’s a blond, good looking fella and sometimes a lad can get penalised for that.
I would hope he liked the idea of coming back to La Rochelle where the head coach understands the out-half mentality. If I can’t get the best out of them, I’m missing a trick. Not everyone is like Jules. Others are slower to buy in to the notion of grafting harder for the marginal gains.
I had an immediate rapport with Benjamin Dambielle and Johan Goosen at Racing, and there was a very productive chemistry with Dan Carter too. I am pretty confident both Plisson and Ahaia West will get better here.
But at the Crusaders, it took a while to convince Richie Mo’unga of the merit of working assiduously on his kicking. It was a tough first four months, but he might look back now and say he’s come quite a way.
His running game, passing game, his dynamism, his acceleration, the whole package is superb, including strength in contact. If he gets hit, his capacity to survive the impact is incredible.
Anyone bringing a good kicking game to the table can extend their career, and their earning capacity, by years. The best kicker on the pitch last Saturday at the Aviva Stadium was a 37-year-old, Richard Wigglesworth of Saracens – proving there’s method, merit and skill in a box kick if properly executed.
Not every side is blessed with an oven-ready No 10 who runs the show like Finn Russell at Racing. Note what a superb job Alex Goode did in the absence of Owen Farrell.
La Rochelle faces Racing 92 when the Top 14 resumes the weekend after this. Will they be preparing for a Heineken Cup final at that stage? They have a massive advantage over Saracens – any team for that matter – with the zippy surface at La Defense Arena, plus the stadium will be at least half full.
One must also ask whether Saracens can get to the emotional pitch of last Saturday once again.
There were so many positive points to come from that performance, it is hard to distil them down for the purpose of this column. Everyone talks about the athletic prowess of Maro Itoje, and for sure that’s all there, but his mental capacity to think in moments of stress is remarkable.
He made 19 tackles, hit about 50 rucks, wasn’t penalised once and pushed every decision to the limit. It was a staggering piece of cup rugby decision-making. His capacity to a) know the rules, b) understand how far he could push the rules and c) act when his heart rates is up at 180 beats per minute was the epitome of smart rugby.
And in every one of those moments that he as releasing the pressure valve on his own team, he was simultaneously suffocating the thinking of the Leinster players.
A clinic in great decision making, from the intercepts to his timing in getting off the line, that’s what watching the ball looks like. People say he has to be offside. No he wasn’t – remember Gareth Davies did it twice for Wales against Australia at the last World Cup.
It’s lazy to say I fell into the trap of believing all the hype about Leinster. This was much deeper than that. Saracens mentally and physically mauled their hosts. 22-3 at half-time is only the top-line.
Here’s the issue, though. It’s an open secret the PRO14 doesn’t do Leinster any favours.
We know that. The problem this year was that Leinster’s flock of Irish internationals weren’t on their way back from playing five Six Nations games, and all the demands that it entails, for this European Cup knockout phase.
Every other season, there might be one game between the end of the Six Nations and the Champions Cup quarter-final, so they’d be primed.
International players performing in the PRO14 can win on autopilot most of the time, without really having to think too much. Sloppiness isn’t punished.
But last Saturday, when Leinster needed the sharps, it wasn’t there. They got spooked, to quote Leo Cullen. Their brain froze.
It didn’t recognise this high-octane pressure. Having got it back to one score game, there was plenty of time to complete the comeback, but you don’t score a try against Saracens from inside your own half. They suffered from not having the Irish players at their sharpest, with that steeled mentality.
The core of the team is used to a different rhythm, playing against England or Wales, rather than Edinburgh or the Dragons.
But didn’t Saracens had the same problem? Yes, but they also have a core of Lions and a group of incredible competitors. Watch Mako Vunipola being withdrawn after 72 minutes at loose head prop, and his reaction to same. Lucky for Mark McCall that he was up in the coach’s box!
There are different narratives with Saracens, but you can’t sully their competitive nature, whatever the charge about salary caps.
Examine Brad Barritt and the standards he sets, the sacrifices he makes. He does all the shit jobs really well. Itoje made more tackles in the quarter-final than any player last weekend, but Barritt and Duncan Taylor made the joint most tackles of any back with 16 each.
So don’t worry, Saracens will come to Paris and examine every last sinew of Racing’s being. They will embrace that mountainous task with gusto. Whether it’s enough I am not sure.
Racing 92 were very comfortable in their quarter-final, beating a Clermont Auvergne side at the end of its cycle.
The Parisiens were on a different plane, underlined by the first try from Louis Dupichot after two minutes, Russell passing to the brilliant Vatakawa. The two of them are a deadly combination, and Teddy Iribaren put on a show at nine. Racing have serious threats all over the park.
Saracens have big game players still but Alex Goode getting the better of Russell? I am not sure. The Scot has been ripping it up now for 18 months. He’s guaranteed quality and his understudy is a talent too - keep an eye out for Antoine Gibert – a leftie who’s a Jonny Wilkinson in the making.
