Leinster must deliver a five-star showing against La Rochelle

Bernard Jackman

Leo Cullen’s men deserve title but it’s won’t be plain sailing with Skelton lurking

Leinster's Josh van der Flier and teammates after their victory over Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Leinster's Josh van der Flier and teammates after their victory over Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Tadhg Furlong

Leinster's Josh van der Flier and teammates after their victory over Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. Photo: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

May 22 2022 02:30 AM

Most people who watched both Champions Cup semi-finals last weekend will think that Leinster are certainties to win their fifth title on Saturday in Marseille, but these games are won on grass and not on paper.

The Toulouse coach Ugo Mola was full of praise for Leinster after they had been put to the sword in the Aviva Stadium. He said Leinster are the reference point in terms of the team in Europe that are pushing the boundaries on and off the field.

When looking at why his team had been beaten so heavily, he cited the high ‘ball in play’ time which was, at 40 minutes, nearly four minutes more than the average in the Top 14. In the build-up to that game, Leo Cullen had hinted that he felt Toulouse would try and slow the game down so he must have been delighted that they didn’t.

There is no doubt that the fast game suited Leinster, who are incredibly mobile and fit. But it takes two to tango and there is no doubt that when Ronan O’Gara and his team of coaches are designing their game plan for La Rochelle this week, one of their key messages will be to control the pace of the game.

Toulouse tried to not find touch, which allowed Leinster to counter-attack. This kept the ball in play and while Toulouse were very lateral and deep in their back line attack (which allowed them to get the ball wide) they never threatened the Leinster defence. Toulouse only created one line break in the whole match and when they got trapped over near the far touchline their big pack of forwards used up a lot of energy having to go resource the ruck or set up for the next phase close to the contact point. They also had too many handling errors which meant Leinster, who were trying to avoid scrums, then kept possession.

La Rochelle will take confidence from last season’s semi-final defeat of Leinster but in terms of talent available the scales have tipped in Leinster’s favour.

La Rochelle lost their Kiwi scrumhalf Tawera Kerr-Barlow against Racing 92 last weekend with a broken hand. Kerr-Barlow used to keep Gibson-Park on the bench before both decided to move to the Northern Hemisphere. It would have been fascinating to see them go head to head.

However, O’Gara may be able to call on the giant lock Will Skelton, who was at the heart of the Saracens win over Leinster two years ago and La Rochelle’s win last year is. He came off the bench in last night’s win over Stade Francais, allaying fears over a calf injury that looked to have ruled him out.

Looking back at the team sheet from last year’s defeat, Leinster are in a much stronger position this time around. They were missing Andrew Porter (who was on the bench covering tighthead) Rónan Kelleher, Dan Sheehan, Caelan Doris, Gibson-Park and Johnny Sexton. Being able to play the second team last night against Munster means they will go into Saturday’s final fresh.

I think O’Gara may go for two bulldozers in the centre to try and win the gainline battle and play closer to his pack. With the French centre Jonathan Danty and the Fijian Levani Botia he has two incredibly powerful men who can punch holes, but also offload in traffic. La Rochelle are different than Toulouse defensively in that they are hard on the ball at the breakdown and have numerous jackal threats.

The Leinster breakdown is amongst the best in the world, but it will need to be as in finals, penalties won at the ruck can be huge momentum changers.

An issue for La Rochelle is how will they convert those penalties into scores. Ihaia West, their outhalf and kicker, had a nightmare afternoon in the semi-final with his place kicking and unfortunately for him it’s been his Achilles heel for his whole career. It’s hard to see Leinster losing unless he is on a good day from the kicking tee.

One area that La Rochelle will probably have an advantage is at the scrum where Leinster will be praying Tadhg Furlong can start. Against Leicester and Toulouse Leinster were frequently penalised on opposition ball and with the size and power in that La Rochelle pack it is an area of concern again.

Leinster will be fine on their own put-in with a quick channel one strike to Jack Conan and they will get the ball away. It’s on the La Rochelle put-in where the problem might arise as they will look to keep the ball in and go for that double shove to show Wayne Barnes they are dominant.

Usually Leinster’s handling is so good that they starve the opposition of put-ins so that this hasn’t become a critical area of weakness. O’Gara will try and increase their defensive line speed to try and force those handling errors that could give them an entry point into the game.

From a Leinster point of view, it’s a case of trying to copy and paste. We know in sport that it’s very hard to put together back-to-back performances of perfection. But this playing squad seem to have the mental maturity to match their athleticism and skillset.

After Antoine Dupont scored the breakaway try last week, they never missed a beat. There was no panic whatsoever. They kicked off long, Toulouse kicked it back and they were into their stride. Moving the ball at pace, going forward until they scored and from there, they were relentless.

This Leinster squad deserve another European title because, as Mola said, they have been the standard bearers for quite a while. I think they will win their fifth title on Saturday, but it won’t be all plain sailing.