Breaking down the La Rochelle v Leinster rivalry

An element of edge has run through it like a stick of rock regardless of personnel.

Sun, 12 Jan, 2025 - 12:09

Brendan O'Brien

There are plenty of European club rivalries that have been built on a greater volume of games than La Rochelle and Leinster. Few, though, have been hothoused like the one that will offer up a sixth chapter since May of 2021 on Sunday afternoon.

No-one has met in the Heineken/Champions Cup more than Munster and Castres who went at it for an 18th time before Christmas. And Munster’s win over Saracens on Saturday night was another brought to mind similar encounters than the years.

That Pool 3 game in Limerick was actually a seventh encounter between the old foes but it took them 26 years to get to that point. Again, just to pause on this a bit longer, Leinster and La Rochelle are on Game Six of their relationship inside just five years.

They have met in the pool stages now, in a quarter-final, in a semi-final and in two deciders. Each one felt seismic, for one club or the other, or for both, when viewed in the singular. Put all those chapters all together and it has made for one epic story.

And what makes a ‘rivalry’ anyway? The word itself carries a hint of permanency and an unchanging hue, but this is a relationship that morphs and adapts. Like culture, it doesn't stand still. The names on the doors may be the same but plenty more has changed since they first banged heads.

The two rosters speak for these changes.

Leinster will have 13 of the 23 that lost out that first day in May of 2021 when they renew acquaintances in this latest pool game. La Rochelle have just eight. It brings to mind the Ship of Theseus Paradox: if every part of a ship is eventually replaced then is it still the same ship?

There weren't even any crowds in the Deflandre that day and Jonno Gibbes was still Ronan O’Gara’s boss. Stuart Lancaster’s fingerprints have since been erased by Jacques Nienaber and by the South African's preference for true grit over smooth and silky strike moves.

Still, an element of edge has run through it like a stick of rock regardless of personnel. There was the offence taken – whether real or conflated - by La Rochelle at the coin toss before the Aviva final and Joe McCarthy this week spoke of the “bite” that comes with this fixture.

What odds on a seventh meeting later in the tournament?

The rivalry in numbers:

94:

The number of players who have will have togged out at some point across the half-dozen games, including this latest one. La Rochelle have seen more change to their squad involvement with the Top 14 side fielding 52 players in all.

Less than four years have passed since the 2021 semi-final and yet that already feels like a generation ago when you trawl through a Leinster line-up at the time that contained the likes of Devin Toner, Rhys Ruddock and Scott Fardy.

No offence, lads!

4 and 5:

The number of players from La Rochelle and Leinster respectively who will have featured in all six ties. That Dillyn Leyds, Uini Atonio, Gregor Alldritt, Robbie Henshaw, Tadhg Furlong and Josh van der Flier are all in that list will be no surprise.

More unexpected is that Ciaran Frawley is part of this exclusive club too. The versatile back has been added to the bench this weekend with Tommy O’Brien ruled out and Jordie Barrett promoted from the reserves.

10:

The number of different nationalities to have taken part: Irish, French, South African, New Zealanders, Australians, Argentinians, a Fijian, a Samoan, an Englishman and a Georgian to be exact about it.

One of the Irishmen, Ultan Dillane, has played for La Rochelle. Rabah Slimani, a French international, will go the opposite way when he makes his debut in this particular fixture when he is called from the bench.

38:

Leo Cullen likes to depict Top 14 opponents as League of Nations-style operations but the picture of dressing rooms swamped by global talent doesn’t stack up with La Rochelle given 38 of their 52 players used in this head-to-head have been sourced from home soil.

46.2:

The average number of points per game in this fixture across the five matches to date. Leinster have actually claimed more – 126 to 105 – thanks in the main to their blowout 40-13 defeat of Les Maritimes in last year’s quarter-final in Dublin.

The average number of tries per game. Another stat skewed slightly in Leinster’s favour by that last eight meeting in Dublin. The average winning margin through the other four games played is just four points. Few expect this one to be much different.

The key stat of them all. La Rochelle pipped Leinster to two titles by edging the 2022 and 2023 deciders in Marseille and Dublin. Leinster went on to lose the 2024 final as well, this time to Toulouse, but no side has frustrated them as much as La Rochelle.