Ronan O'Gara: A dispatch from Robben Island, minus the headspace for any Mandela moments

La Rochelle are big dogs now, no longer unheralded underdog. Hence there will be 55,000 in Cape Town Saturday. Now we have to play like big boys.

COLLISION: La Rochelle number 8 Yoan Tanga-Mangene is tackled by Leinster's Jimmy O'Brien at the Marcel Deflandre Stadium

DON’T let anyone convince you this rollercoaster doesn’t swallow you whole. You may be on Robben Island, off Cape Town, with the opportunity to suck every morsel of marrow from the experience and the history of the place but still be less consumed by Mandela moments than our play patterns for the Stormers on Saturday. Sad but, regrettably, too true.

When players and coaches say they’ve kicked reflections on career highs and lows down the road, take them at their word. It’s tough enough to keep up with the now. On the boat ride to Robben Island Thursday, I knew deep down this would be better appreciated another time (in fairness, it wasn’t my first visit to this sombre corner of South Africa’s apartheid history).