Tadhg Furlong remains an injury concern for Leinster ahead Sale Sharks clash

Leinster and La Rochelle had barely drawn breath in the aftermath of Sunday’s intense, rain-soaked arm wrestle when they were already turning their attention toward next weekend. With six-day turnarounds to round two fixtures that underline Pool Four, they had little choice.

The beaten back-to-back champions suddenly have markedly less elbow room after a first defeat at their Stade Marcel-Deflandre fortress in the Champions Cup since Exeter beat them in their opening pool game four years ago.

The organisers and TV companies have done Ronan O’Gara and his squad little favours in obliging them to negotiate a turnaround from a teatime Sunday evening kick-off to a lunchtime Saturday kick-off. Hence while there are direct flights from Paris to Cape Town on Tuesdays, in order to arrive a day earlier, they set off on Monday on the first of three legs from Bordeaux to Paris en route to Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, if Leinster’s celebrations were a tad muted, it wasn’t only because of the rain and the knowledge that their vengeful 16-9 win over O’Gara’s men was but one pool game.

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“I was doing the media day a couple of weeks ago in London and a lot of the questions were all about La Rochelle, but we knew there was one of the best teams in England coming six days later,” said co-captain Garry Ringrose in reference to next Saturday’s visit of the Sale Sharks to the RDS (kick-off 5.30pm).

“So, we 100 per cent respected La Rochelle and knew we’d have to be close to our best to try and win, but the challenge was to back it up in six days time. For us, it’s always been the two games.”

Sale are the early pacesetters in the Premiership, with six wins out of eight. The two blips were a 43-0 loss in Exeter in round three on World Cup final weekend, and a 36-3 beating by Harlequins just over a week ago, thus leaving them with a negative points difference. Even so, they started off their Pool Four campaign with a commanding 28-5 win at home to Stade Francais on Sunday.

[ Leo Cullen ‘not getting too excited’ after Leinster finally get one over La Rochelle ]

“But, given the history – to come here and win is great,” admitted Ringrose in the aftermath of Leinster’s hugely satisfying win. “We won’t get carried away, we’ll enjoy each other’s company and, on the flight back, we’ll be smiling. Back to work tomorrow.”

Aside from avenging the semi-final defeat in La Rochelle three seasons ago and the last two finals, any win in France is an achievement. In the last 10 seasons Leinster have played a dozen Top 14 sides in France, winning five times, drawing once and losing six.

“Winning away in France, it’s hard to do. History shows that,” said Leo Cullen. “It definitely gives us the confidence, [but] it’s turn the page and on to the next one pretty quickly.

“Ìt’s such a great block of games, we talked a few weeks ago about the two interpros that we had leading into the Champions Cup games, another one down and one to go with a short turnaround. Then you’re into Christmas, down to Thomond on the 26th – thanks very much whoever organises those fixtures – my family are complaining! Put in a good word for us please,” added Cullen, one ventures only half-joking at the thought of having yet another curtailed Christmas.

Turning his thoughts back to Leinster’s first win in four attempts against La Rochelle, the theory that Will Skelton and co were Leinster’s kryptonite was clearly in mind.

“When you don’t beat a team, then it becomes the narrative, doesn’t it, about all the things that they are great are doing.

“The reality is that they’re unbelievably tight games,” said Cullen, particularly referencing the defeats in finals by margins of one and three points.

“Maybe the semi-final here a few years ago [which La Rochelle won 32-23] wasn’t particularly close in the end, even though we had lots of chances within that game, but there was a period where we had a bit of a wobble midway through the second half.

“That’s what we talked about leading into the game; we talked about how we’d manage the last 10 minutes and the pleasing thing is we managed that last 10 minutes much better.

“So, it’s not so much this psychological piece, let’s break down the game, minute one into the 80th minute of the game and beyond that even as well, and we were just much better at doing that today. That’s credit to the players, they’re learning the pieces all the time and if we get into that situation again, we’re better for it.”

“It’s the narrative, isn’t it, breaking down what’s in the actual reality versus the media narrative. So it’s important that we actually understand what’s actually happened in games we’ve lost, and the biggest we’ve lost, finals and all the rest.

“I don’t buy into the narrative as much as you might think.”

Cullen and Co have a particularly tricky selection decision in the event of Jack Conan coming back into the mix given the performances of the backrow and Josh van der Flier off the bench in La Rochelle.

“Jack was running before I left and he looked to be running pretty well,” said Cullen, though he was less confident about Tadhg Furlong – “not a million miles away” – and in particular James Lowe – “Probably less likely with him I’d say.”

O’Gara, meanwhile, remained defiant: “We’re down but we’re not out.”

However, he also admitted: “We need to get our campaign back, it’s going to be a really difficult game next up but that’s the beauty of sport at this level. It’s never simple, there’s always rollercoasters but it’s the first bump in two and a half years where this team has lost in the Champions Cup, which is a phenomenal statistic.

“Now that’s gone and we’re fighting to prove ourselves again because we need to keep in contact with teams that are qualifying.”

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