Donal Lenihan: La Rochelle's balance and variety dismantles Leinster
Leinster’s James Lowe is tackled during the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final. Winning all the psychological battles, La Rochelle grew in stature throughout the game.
With confirmation last week that Twickenham will host the Heineken Champions Cup final in front of a crowd, albeit limited to 10,000 fans, those tickets were like gold dust and sold out in no time in advance of the semi-finals.
No doubt many bought in anticipation of the dream final with Toulouse and Leinster both looking to become the first side to win five Heineken Champions Cups. Since the victory in their last final appearance back in 2010, Toulouse have been chasing that fifth European star for their famed red and black jersey. While far from their best in their 21-9 win over Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday, they achieved their primary goals of reaching the decider.
Over to Leinster. Semi-finals are all about winning, something Leo Cullen was equally conscious of going into the Stade Marcel-Deflandre yesterday. They too were conscious of history. Standing in their way, a La Rochelle side playing only their 18th game of Heineken Champions Cup rugby.
In effect, Ronan O’Gara’s men had nothing to lose but played like a side — not least in an explosive second-half display where they totally dominated Leinster — in a hurry to make their mark and capture silverware. On the evidence of this performance, you wouldn’t bet against them. They were outstanding and taught Leinster a lesson.
To do so after enduring an opening 10 minutes when it looked as if they might well be overrun, was testimony to the belief, structure and organisation that O’Gara and Jono Gibbes have brought to their set up. This victory will rank with anything O’Gara achieved in his playing days, even if he was at pains to play the significance down after the game itself. Waking up this morning will feel especially good.
Given the make-up of his squad and, in particular, the bulk and explosive power available to him up front, it came as no surprise to me that the La Rochelle coaching duo would base their game plan around the elements that served Saracens so well in successive wins over Leinster in the 2019 and 2020
tournaments.
In terms of sending an early message to their less experienced hosts as to the step-up in quality and intensity at this level of European competition, the manner in which Leinster exploded out of the blocks in the opening 10 minutes suggested that the margin of victory might well be the only thing in doubt.
Such was the pressure imposed by Leinster in that period, La Rochelle conceded five penalties in the opening seven minutes alone. Normally that’s about as much as you’d hope to give away in an entire half of rugby. It was inevitable that a yellow card would follow, which is exactly what happened when open side Wiaan Liebenberg was sin-binned after six minutes.
When Leinster scored their opening try minutes later, courtesy of a trademark bulldozing drive from Tadhg Furlong, La Rochelle looked shell-shocked. They don’t often face that level of intense pressure in the opening phase of Top 14 rugby yet, to their credit, they offered an early indication of the composure that marked their performance after the break by managing the period of Liebenberg’s card by recording two penalties to reduce the net deficit to a single point.
Even more important was the fact that Ihaia West, whose success from the boot in the Top 14 has dipped under 60%, was immaculate off the boot in that opening half with a return of three penalties and a drop goal to keep his side in touch, 12-13 at the break.
That said, there would have been little panic in the Leinster changing room at that stage as they fancied their chances of lifting the tempo even further and controlling the territorial game as they so often do against most opposition in the third quarter.
If that was the plan, the manner in which La Rochelle took ownership of that crucial period left Leinster reeling. The visitors may also have derived a false sense of security with just two scrums in the first half with the second yielding a free kick for Cullen’s men.
After the break, La Rochelle turned up the power. Their scrum buckled Leinster within minutes and from the ensuing penalty kicked deep into the Leinster half. From there they unleashed an incredible lineout maul that Leinster had no option but to halt by illegal means with West putting La Rochelle ahead for the first time. Once they got their noses in front, they never looked back.
Their explosive set-piece power was complemented brilliantly by the technical excellence of their work around the tackle at the breakdown. I lost count of the number of penalties Leinster conceded by allowing their ball carrier get isolated in the tackle and how slow the support players were in resourcing the ruck.
In Victor Vito, Gregory Alldritt and man of the match, Pierre Bougarit, La Rochelle had three poachers of the highest quality with the penalty count turning dramatically on the back for their efforts. That enabled West and Tawera Kerr-Barlow keep their gigantic forwards on the front foot and control the all-important territorial battle. It was a carbon copy of the Saracens approach that yielded rich dividends in those successive outings against Leinster.
Winning all the psychological battles, La Rochelle grew in stature and their body language radiated confidence. Big Wallaby second row Will Skelton played like a man possessed and every time he carried in that second half it took three Leinster bodies to slow him down. Even then, they acted more like mere speed bumps. When he crashed over from close range with more Leinster bodies flailing in his wake with five minutes to go, the game was up and history of a different kind about to be made.
While it was widely anticipated that La Rochelle would be more than a match for Leinster and would push them all the way, the comprehensive nature of this victory will have left Cullen and Stuart Lancaster with much to ponder.
The fact that they can operate in cruise control for so much of the season, even when forced to operate without so many for their front line troops on international duty, the fact is, once again, they looked slightly undercooked and vulnerable in the latter stages in Europe.
Given that 13 of their starting side featured for Ireland in the Six Nations, it’s not that their individual players aren’t used to playing at the highest level. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the fact that La Rochelle were getting stronger as the second half progressed and Leinster were the ones left struggling for air.
That’s what tends to happen when somebody is strangling you.
Every time I have watched them play, I have been impressed by the balance and variety to La Rochelle’s game. Their power up front is matched by an ability to put width on the game when they have the ball and stress
opposition defences.
Without the ball the defensive pressure they exert from out to in and with their use of defensive shooters frustrated Leinster no end.
They found it difficult to make any inroads in attack. On this performance, O’Gara’s charges are capable of going all the way against a Toulouse side who will have an advantage over Leinster from playing them so regularly in the French championship. It promises to be a cracking final.
As if things weren’t bad enough, Leinster’s players and management now face five days of quarantine in an Irish hotel followed by a further five days of restricted movement at their respective homes which, in the circumstances, will only serve to add to their misery. It was that kind of a day for them.
