Ulster boss Jono Gibbes wary of La Rochelle ‘X-factor’
Having watched the French side whip Harlequins last week in their opening Pool 1 clash with a blistering try-bonus point at The Stoop, Gibbes is more than happy that Ulster can still produce the same rock-solid defensive performance that they showed in the 19-9 win against Wasps.
Gibbes spent three years with Clermont Auvergne, whom he helped guide to two Champions Cup finals and only their second Top 14 title success last season, before moving to Ulster in the summer. But he says that La Rochelle, who finished as top team in the Top 14 before the Round Robin play-offs, is a squad riddled with exceptionally-skilful players.
“In my experience last year in France when with Clermont, La Rochelle are individually probably one of the most skilful teams,” said Gibbes.
“They are a sort of an X-factor team in France. If you look at Toulouse who have Maxine Medard and Gael Fickou, players who can create things, La Rochelle seem to have players from one to 15 who can do all sorts of things.
“So certainly the threat is pretty real. I’m not sure I would compare them to Wasps, more to Scarlets. Not maybe in the same way that they play, but Scarlets have built a style of play and you can see that they are comfortable with it and has come to fruition by winning the PRO14 title last year.
“La Rochelle have built in the course of the last year or 18 months, a style they are pretty comfortable with. They are happy and they have had some fantastic away results last year. They were the top attack and second best defence side after 26 games. So they’ve built on good framework of team work and they are pretty comfortable with that.
“What we would like to take forward from Wasps into La Rochelle is the confidence and clarity in what we did against them in defence. It was the guys outside that 23-man squad that helped the defence confidence during the week. And again, we have to take that through to La Rochelle.
“We need that confidence again, and conviction. Yeah it’s going to be tough for sure, but we just have to stick together which is probably the main thing,” explained Gibbes, who expects a right old raucous afternoon at the Stade Marcel Deflandre.
“It’s a great stadium, it’s very similar to here (Kingspan). I wouldn’t say it’s enormous but the actual stands are very close to the ground. They’ve got tin hoarding right around the ground and when the crowd smash that, they make a hell of a racket. I would imagine you will not be able to talk to each other on the pitch because it’s gong to be very loud.
“They keep the ball in play and don’t kick a lot, so the time in play is going to be a lot. We are going to have to communicate without words and the only way you can do that is to get cohesiveness throughout the training week.”
Meanwhile, it’s unlikely Ireland skipper Rory Best will be included in the match-day squad as he recovers from a torn hamstring. However, he could be employed as a waterboy. “Having somebody around with his experience would be invaluable to the boys,” said Gibbes.
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