O'Gara: Family ties central to La Rochelle success

SPECIAL MOMENTS: La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara, with his mum Joan, after the Heineken Champions Cup Final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at Aviva Stadium. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ronan O'Gara has revealed the family ties that provided the theme that propelled La Rochelle to secure their second Heineken Champions Cup title.

O'Gara's team sealed the deal on a successful title defence following their initial success in Marseille in 2022 with their come-from-behind 27-26 victory over Leinster at Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

Afterwards, the Munster legend embraced his mother, Joan, and told Off The Ball: "She missed Marseille because of a fall and then it was more severe than we thought, her brain wasn't functioning great.

"She's slowly on the mend but she needs to eat up and get strong, but days like today, she's too into it, it's too much for her.

"We had a little theme going in the background, when you want to scale Everest, who are you going to bring with you?

"So we brought a photo of my mum, the boys brought people who were special to them and we had it on our mat in the dressing-room.

"So when it got it tough, people started to I think think about who was important to them and didn't want to go back to La Rochelle without the Cup."