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Gerry Thornley: La Rochelle’s ability to rise to big occasion there for all to see

Facing Leinster at the Aviva will hold no fears for O’Gara’s champions after they recorded their 10th successive knock-out Champions Cup win by edging out Stormers in Cape Town

La Rochelle recorded another notable first when they became the first visiting side to register a Champions Cup win in South Africa by pipping the Stormers in Cape Town. Photograph: Rodger Bosch/AFP

Gerry Thornley's face
Gerry Thornley
Tue Apr 9 2024 - 06:00

If the second instalment of the Champions Cup Round of 16 underlined anything it is perhaps a reminder that every single point in the pool stages counts.

After a clean sweep for the home sides last season, and also in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, only one away team advanced over the weekend, and somehow you knew that if any team was going to defy the odds, it would be yer man’s lot in La Rochelle, not least as it set up another fascinating grudge rematch with Leinster.

Had Manie Libbok landed a conversion with the final kick of the game in overtime at the DHL Stadium on Saturday afternoon as he had done when the Stormers beat La Rochelle 21-20 last December, it would have been another Round of 16 clean sweep for the home sides.

Furthermore, that would also have meant the same representation from across the competing countries as last season in the quarter-finals, with Leinster flying the flag for Irish rugby, three English teams and two each from France and South Africa.

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Instead, with La Rochelle and Toulouse joining Bordeaux/Begles in reaching the last eight, the Top 14 has upped their representation from two to three whereas the South Africans are down from two to one, while there are again three English teams as well as Leinster.

Leo Cullen’s side top the betting, with Paddy Power anyway, but are immediately followed by the three French heavyweights of Toulouse, Bordeaux/Begles and La Rochelle.

To put La Rochelle’s achievement over the weekend into further perspective, after coming from 16-0 down to beat the Stormers in Cape Town, it was the first time any visiting side had won a Champions Cup match in South Africa.

Including last year’s final as, effectively, a home match for Leinster at the Aviva, there have been 23 knockout ties in the last two seasons of the Champions Cup, and only two of them have been won by away sides. In both instances, La Rochelle were the winners and each time by a solitary point.

There’s other reasons for recognising why Ronan O’Gara’s team can negate Leinster’s home advantage, even if next Saturday’s quarter-final at the Aviva is a deserved reward for four pool wins out of four and a haul of 19 points from a possible 20 – and primarily for their victory on the opening weekend in La Rochelle.

O’Gara’s team have looked a little weary from last season’s efforts, when playing a maximum 36 matches in coming within one outstanding match-winning try from deep by Romain Ntamack of a historic double with a first Bouclier de Brennus.

Furthermore, they were one of the bulk suppliers to the World Cup, and all of this has been manifest in a ho-hum Top 14 campaign of 10 wins and 10 defeats which leaves them currently sitting fifth domestically.

Yet after backing up their breakthrough triumph two seasons ago, when beating Leinster in the Marseille final, with their comeback win last May, under O’Gara’s influence this Champions Cup clearly rocks their boat.

So it is that in 13 away matches this season La Rochelle have won just three and lost 10. But two of those away wins have been in the Champions Cup.

Whatever about the week-to-week grind, they are also the epitome of a big-game team. In the last four seasons under O’Gara, they have played a whopping 19 knock-out matches in both the Top 14 and Champions Cup.

What’s more, by dint of beating the Stormers last Saturday, La Rochelle recorded their tenth knock-out win in succession in this competition since losing the 2021 final against Toulouse.

Indeed, but for Levani Botia’s 28th minute red card in that 2021 final at Twickenham in front of a restricted crowd of 10,000 they might have won their last 14 Champions Cup knock-out ties in succession and now be seeking a record fourth triumph in a row. As it is, they are still aiming to emulate the Toulon three-in-a-row side of 2013-15.

Travelling to Cork from Cape Town and basing the squad on Fota Island was a clever logistical move, which was clearly the brainchild of O’Gara. Logistically it makes perfect sense, but it also ticks a few other boxes and seems more than a little mischievous, as if mounting a Munster-infused invasion on the capital from his Munster heartland.

Fully aware of the psychological scars they have inflicted on Leinster in ending their obsession for a fifth star in each of the last three seasons, and in advance of a season-defining game for Leo Cullen’s side, it will be fascinating to see if O’Gara lobs in the odd grenade this week.

But he will have his team primed for their best performance of the season and if any team genuinely believe they can defy logic by winning a third Champions Cup title on the spin entirely away from home it is this La Rochelle team.

Georges Henri Colombe of La Rochelle scores his side's third try against Leinster in the Champions Cup final at the Aviva Stadium last May. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

They are dogged, unwavering in their self-belief and determination, at times prickly and in your face, well able to foster any sleight whether perceived or real, and perhaps the mentally strongest team in the competition. And they say a team reflects its head coach!

At times you wonder if Leinster might want that fifth star too much for their own good, but the obsession and the bitter rivalry with La Rochelle is reflected in ticket sales. Leinster’s 12,500 season ticket holders bought 20,000 tickets in advance of them going on general sale at 2pm yesterday, whereupon another 15,000 were sold in less than two hours.

There isn’t another tie in the Champions Cup which could sell 35,000 tickets that quickly, but then again this is a reprise of the last two finals. It doesn’t even need Don King to promote it.

The pity is that this mouthwatering tie of the season so far in both Irish provincial rugby and in the Champions Cup clashes with the Women’s Six Nations game between Ireland and Wales at Virgin Media Park on Saturday. That game kicks off at 4.45pm on Virgin Media while the Leinster-La Rochelle game on RTÉ starts at 5.30pm.

Sometimes you really do wonder if rival competitions even pass a nodding glance toward each other, never mind actually picking up the dog and bone. The timing of the Leinster-La Rochelle game is more than a little insulting toward the Women’s Six Nations.

Funnily enough, it’s not been an exceptional season for the Irish teams in Europe as, save for Leinster, the others underperformed in the Champions Cup, albeit Ulster and Connacht have moved to within three games of winning much-coveted silverware via the Challenge Cup. Hence, it could yet be an exceptional one yet, but next weekend could go a long way towards deciding that.

gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com

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