La Rochelle v Leinster: Five takeaways from Champions Cup clash as revenge is sweet for Leo Cullen’s men

Following a 16-9 victory for Leinster over La Rochelle at Stade Marcel Deflandre, here’s our five takeaways from the Champions Cup pool clash on Sunday.

The top line

Finally, Leinster get one over on La Rochelle as a calm display of taking chances that were on offer and playing low error rugby without the ball in horrendous conditions saw them claim four points in France as they took the spoils for the first time in four meetings between these two sides.

It brings La Rochelle’s 16-match unbeaten run to a close and launches Leinster‘s 2023/24 Champions Cup campaign in style in Pool 4, a group where no weakness or easy game exists.

For the visitors a huge display at the back by Hugo Keenan together with a dominant performance from all of their back-row forwards did enough to see them home in a game packed with incident and niggle.

Given the dominance La Rochelle had in the set-piece and the aerial contest, the Leinster fortitude was admirable, driven by calm thinking and accurate handling, but had La Rochelle behaved with a little more maturity in their rugby things may have been oh so different.

Leadership

If there was one single difference between these two teams it was the ability to think calmly under the immense pressure of the weather and the history of this fixture.

Both teams pushed the outstanding Matthew Carley to the edge of his considerable patience, but the difference was Leinster did it calmly and with purpose, whilst La Rochelle, and in particular, Pierre Bougarit, got absolutely caught up in the emotion of close calls and interpretations. Sure, there were a few decisions that might have gone the other way and Leinster were mightily lucky not to get a yellow card in the second half after eight consecutive penalties in the space of 15 minutes, but the hosts got drawn into that emotional reaction that clouded their own purpose.

There were seven separate chances for the home side to kick moderately comfortable three pointers – and La Rochelle seemed not to want to have the patience to get close and go again. They chose to go to the corner, and then to compound issues, absolutely blew their chances with either overly complex lineout moves or terribly executed throws.

It was a classic case of confused captaincy and mixed messages, and the body language of Bougarit, a key leader, showed everything about how he got emotionally embroiled in nonsense, much to the detriment of his team’s chances.

Margins and conditions

Given the torrential overhead conditions on the Atlantic Coast, fine margins were always going to be the order of the day. For Leinster, their discipline and accuracy in handling just shaded that of La Rochelle, but conversely, the scrum battle very much went the way of the hosts, with Uini Atonio yet again staying square and solid despite the shenanigans of angle (and running commentary) of Andrew Porter on the Leinster loosehead.

With La Rochelle showing more control with the boot and aerial game, they gave themselves a lot of opportunities to get themselves onto the front foot but time and time again, indiscipline around the contact area let them down, as they conceded almost twice the number of penalties as Leinster in the first half, although the visitors certainly changed that picture in the second period.

There’s no doubt that when Jonathan Danty and Joe McCarthy both saw yellow after 11 minutes following an unedifying 15 on 15 scuffle in the in goal area that it was La Rochelle that lost out biggest of all, missing the extra centre in the defensive line on the wide outside as Jordan Lamour scooted over for his try unopposed, underlining just how important those disciplinary margins were all afternoon.

What a feeling. 🤩

#SRvLEI #FromTheGroundUp pic.twitter.com/6FqaYGQfkI

— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) December 10, 2023

Back-row battle

One of the biggest reasons Leinster managed to get over the line in this match was the work of their back-row, who pushed every single inch of legality in every contact moment to disrupt and tease the La Rochellians. At the centre of everything was blindside flank Ryan Baird who put in a memorable performance, winning restarts, hitting massive tackles and offering a hugely disruptive presence in the lineout.

Whilst Levani Botia had his moments, the Black and Yellows missed the calming influence and lineout brilliance of Gregory Alldritt enormously and his absence was a crucial one in the final analysis.

With Will Connors putting in an immense shift for 50 minutes, Josh van der Flier continued in his footsteps, a mangling and annoying presence, often again pushing the letter of the law in terms of entry point and timing, and given the back-row battleground it was fitting that the former World Rugby Player of the Year made the telling intervention at the end, stealing the La Rochelle ball on his own 10 metre line and giving Ciaran Frawley the chance to nail an enormous 59 metre kick into the wind to finally allow Leinster to get one over on their most deadly of rivals.

Looking ahead

Put simply, La Rochelle almost certainly need to win two on the road in order to qualify and defend their title in this season’s competition. Given those games are at Sale Sharks and in Cape Town against the Stormers, they’re also against two big physical sides who will match them toe to toe in set-piece and collision work and they will need every ounce of their power to get them home.

The return of Alldritt cannot come soon enough; this match was a diesel four-wheel drive day made for the style of his game and his calm leadership was sorely missed.

For Leinster, they know that winning their home games against Sale Sharks and Stade Francais will take them home, plus they’ll relish the trip to Mattioli Woods Welford Road in between, to play a Leicester Tigers side they eviscerated there the last time they met.

Leinster look a side that have been galvanised by their mutual failures for club and country, a team pulled together by the pain of those losses. Uncompromising and niggly, they might not win the hearts of many neutrals, but today was a huge step in the right direction of changing the fortunes of a so-called golden generation of talent that have, as of yet, wholly underperformed.

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