Ronan O'Gara: Taking short, shallow breaths at business end of the season

HEADS-UP RUGBY: La Rochelle's French lock Remi Picquette passes the ball during the European Rugby Champions Cup match against Ulster at The Marcel Deflandre Stadium in January. Pic: Xavier Leoty/AFP via Getty Images

Where the air is thin, you take your short, shallow breaths where you can get them. After a mountainous 21 weekends of Top 14, we go into Week 22 on Saturday balancing the necessity to finish in the top two with the semi-final of the European Champions Cup in a fortnight.

There are five rounds of regular season remaining in France but there are no priorities. La Rochelle has never won the Bouclier, but its history has been rewritten by winning the Heineken Champions Cup in Marseille last May.

Winning a first Top 14 is a massive priority for the club, but every inch of me was reared on the European Cup. It’s what I was framed by as a player. You think I can kind of give 95%? Are you dreaming?

So what happens now? In a sense, we are working backwards from the April 30 European semi against Exeter.

I know the side I would like to put out in Bordeaux (23,000 tickets sold in the first hour or two this week), and I know the side we must put out on Saturday at home to Bayonne. So much of this is physiological and scientific, but there is a big part of it psychological and instinctive from my point of view.

The mental energy spent on which way to go with team selection can be challenging because it is so important. This is 80% gut and 20% science. That is not to say you ignore the physiological benchmarks, but I don’t need a read-out to tell me Levani Botia or Tawera Kerr-Barlow don't play this weekend. Greg Alldritt’s minutes are being managed anyway, so he’s off my radar too for Bayonne, who are forever a tough but to crack. At this stage, you are minding minutes as much as minding games.

It is not feasible in the Top 14 to cut and paste team selections, not with Champions Cup rounds to factor in as well. What is different is you can win in Europe with a team, but you need a group to win the Top 14.

Squeezed between Bayonne and Exeter is another home tie against Clermont Auvergne, and that presents different challenges. That’s a week out from the Champions Cup semi-final. But finishing at least second in the Top 14 offers enticing advantages for the play-offs. If you are six points clear of third place, and you have three of your remaining five games at home, then you are in a decent place.

No point, after everything we’ve done, finishing anywhere from third to sixth, because that kills you. How? First and second places miss the ‘barrage’ (third v sixth, fourth v fifth), giving you a free weekend. A free weekend at this stage of the campaign is nirvana, it’s gold. It gives you the chance to breathe and reload for that final season push. It might not seem much but being 160 minutes away from a Top 14 final and 240 minutes away is so much more than the 80 minutes. When the air gets thinner and the minutes get harder, those 80 minutes are precious.

All my energy now is about making sure we give ourselves the best chance of performing. There is so much scope for us to get better still. Opposition will cause us problems every game but if we have three dropped kick-off receptions and four knock-ons, what good is the Exeter or Bayonne dossier? If we have two players messing up their roles in a special play, it’s moot anyway.

This is where our energy givers and suckers become fundamental. This is where we need Remi Picquette, our second-row cover for Will Skelton. I have had more difficult conversations with the big lock than nearly anyone else in the squad. He is always seeing the good in what I have to say to him, even if the positives are sometimes limited.

He takes the crumbs out of me shutting the door in his face. He does the warm-up properly, does all the shitty roles properly and turns a negative conversation for me into a positive one for him. We wouldn’t have got past Racing 92 in last year’s semi-final but for Remi, with Will missing both the last eight and last four.

He is still in his apprenticeship as a lineout caller, so it’s hard for him to get in front of a Romain Sazy, Thomas Lavault or Ultan Dillane. But he is priceless, especially for his positive energy. A lot of those lads will get their opportunity this weekend. With games on two fronts, there are minutes, and moments, to put the hand up. One wonders what sort of friction a loss at home to Gloucester in the Champions Cup round of 16 would have generated but now everyone’s keeping their heads down and grafting for the group. It’s a powerful, if often fickle group dynamic.

The group is settled. There is a good appetite to try and get the best out of each other. We defended really well in the Saracens win last Sunday, but we were very average with the ball. That’s a big positive to take forward.

I’ve been in sport a long time, but I was still blown away by the performances of Botia and Kerr-Barlow last Sunday. How Botia patrolled Owen Farrell, tackled him when he could, showed great discipline when he couldn’t. This is a man who was sent off in a Champions Cup final against Toulouse at Twickenham two years ago and suffered. But he learnt.

Kerr Barlow is unquestionably the second-best nine in the world at the moment, and if he is no longer of interest to his native New Zealand, you wouldn’t rule out an interesting phone call from Eddie Jones. Tawera’s mother is Australian.

I found Saracens a stressful 80 minutes. You have to respect the two Vunipolas, Itoje, Farrell, Ben Earl, Maitland, they have players that can cause problems. If we lost on Sunday, it would have been seen as a surprise. They are the ones you have to make sure you keep nailing.

At one point, we were 16-3 up with all the pressure but not feeling in any way comfortable. What if they get a try against the run of play then? Massive momentum shift. Even at 21-10, if they get a try, same problem. Teddy Thomas has a misread in defence, Brice Dulin goes off as a result with a yellow, and there are eight minutes to go. We are 24-10 up but that game could have finished 24-24 with Atonio, Skelton, Kerr Barlow and Botia off the pitch. Good luck there trying to get the boys up for extra time in a game that should have been put to bed.

The staff flicked the page quickly come Tuesday. We had an open session at La Roche Sur Yon, attracting a couple of thousand watchers. Tickets for the semi are flying. The buzz is building again. We don’t want to be seen again as a flash in the pan. This is about building something sustainable.

I hope Jess has something planned to do Sunday. Otherwise, I will watch Leicester play Exeter, I know I will. Those who felt the Tigers would challenge Leinster last Friday (that’s me, by the way), are noting a recurring theme about Leo Cullen’s men. There’s a moment you think they are in for a bit of a squeeze, but then they blow the game open. Garry Ringrose looks very dangerous in every facet now, with or without the ball, as evidenced by that poach penalty he won against the Tigers. It’s another string to an already impressive bow.

Toulouse going to Dublin will be a spectacle. There is serious quality on both sides. Leinster will bank on organised structure; Toulouse will want it fast and loose to allow Dupont and Ramos come into their own.

We will be sitting in Bordeaux. Breathing in the thin air. In short, shallow intakes.