Joe McCarthy: La Rochelle rivalry is more personal, like Munster

Edge. Bite. Slog. These are the words McCarthy produces when looking ahead to the weekend. There’s no menace in the delivery. They are just statements of fact and he’ll be ready for the bit of expected lip that comes with it too.

UP FOR THE FIGHT: Leinster's Joe McCarthy. Pic: Andrew Conan/Inpho

If the Champions Cup pool stages struggle to get the juices flowing anymore then La Rochelle and Leinster at the Stade Marcel Deflandre on Sunday makes for one of the exceptions to the rule.

Ronan O’Gara’s side are still struggling to rediscover the consistency that won them titles in 2022 and 2023, and the jury is still out on Leinster’s more grizzled approach to things this season, but there really is no diluting the attraction of this one.