As quarter-finals go, when the dust has settled on the 2023-24 campaign one imagines we will reflect on next Saturday’s reunion with back-to-back Champions Cup winners La Rochelle next Saturday as particularly defining in Leinster’s season.
This is not to say that in the event of them beating Ronan O’Gara’s team, Leinster would be guaranteed to claim that cherished fifth star. But come next Saturday night, Leinster’s magnificent obsession will be over for another year or they will have earned a home semi-final against Northampton or the Bulls
“Yeah definitely, I think it’s the biggest match of the season so far,” admitted Jacques Nienaber, but he was not of a mind to determine it as season-defining.
“Last week was the biggest one and then now this one. Every knockout game is the biggest one of the season, because that’s the thing, there is no tomorrow if you lose. Luckily there is another competition you will go in but you will face the same pressure or the same, how can I say, importance of the game when you go into the quarter-finals of ERC, semi-final and final.”
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Leinster removed a few demons with that sleeves-rolled-up 16-9 win over La Rochelle last December. But Ronan O’Gara will pitch up at the Aviva with many of the personnel who have inflicted scars on Leinster in the last two finals and preceding semi-final.
Even so Nienaber does not subscribe to the narrative that physically Leinster can’t cope with Big Bad Will Skelton, Uini Atonio, Jonathan Danty et al, noting that Ireland had the second biggest side at the World Cup.
“I think only Tonga were heavier. If you take the 33-man squad’s weights and divide it by 33, Ireland was the next biggest. Ireland have the biggest backs in the world in rugby currently so yes, there will be a narrative that they are bigger, they are heavier, they are bigger bullies.
“But if you look at the reality and just look at the size of Irish players in the Irish national side compared to other national sides around the world, in the tier one nations there isn’t a bigger, heavier side than Ireland.”
Leinster will assuredly need to be sharper than they were against Leicester last Saturday, but as Nienaber said, this quarter-final will have a “completely different” mindset.
Leicester’s players and management believed they could win, “but there wasn’t that much pressure on them to pull off a result,” said Nienaber. “I’m not talking down on them. There was an expectancy pressure on us, definitely, and sometimes that is refreshing.
“Going into the 2019 World Cup final, South Africa had no expectancy pressure. That’s beautiful. England had all of that so that is a kind of freedom, you can express yourself. This weekend there will be expectancy pressure on us and on La Rochelle as defending champions so that’s why this one will be a little different to the one we played last weekend.”
Luke McGrath has completed his return to play protocols, although Cian Healy sustained a leg injury against Leinster which jeopardises his chances of overtaking O’Gara as the player with the most appearances in Champions Cup history, having drawn level with him on 110 games.
Charlie Ngatai and Garry Ringrose returned to the squad’s unit training yesterday, but Nienaber said Ringrose had a few boxes to tick yet.
“He must be comfortable as a player and confident because he hasn’t played for a while and then we have to have confidence in him from a coaching perspective and from the players around him and how he is slotting in and his timing. Then there is a layer above that, the medical team must be confident that he is fully medically fit.”
Ringrose would be a vital cog in Nienaber’s defence at outside centre although the latter cited La Rochelle’s set-piece as the starting point of their threat.
“It sounds like a cliche but to be successful at knockouts or any rugby game you have to be dominant at your set piece, which they are, they’ve got a good set piece.
“They have an understanding of what their DNA is. They’ve got big ball carriers that give them momentum and that gets them on the front foot. So when they’ve the set-piece on their terms, they get momentum on their terms, then they’ve got flashy players that can create spectacles, and that’s like the South African lads I know that play on the wing that can create magic.”
Can Nienaber apply some of that formula which helped the Springboks win a quarter-final, semi-final and final by one point apiece last year?
“I would say the secret of any knockout game is you’ve got to be accurate in what you do, it’s accuracy that gets you across the line. You’ve got to have intent, you’ve got to have energy and you need to be physical, and you need to be aligned and accurate in your plan.
“So, if you look at it individually, you have to be physical, you have to have a work ethic, you have to make sure on the day that the individual brings that to that party.
“Then from a team perspective you have to make sure that you’re aligned, we’ve got to know what we’ve got to do in attack and defence and then on the day you have to be accurate.
“And then sometimes when both teams bring that and there’s parity, and they bring intensity and physicality, we have a plan, they have a good plan, they execute their plan and we execute our plan, then,” he said, both pausing and smiling, “you need a little bit of luck sometimes.”
In refereeing news, England’s Karl Dickson will take charge of the quarter-final clash.
The Challenge Cup quarter-final between Clermont Auvergne and Ulster Rugby on Saturday will be refereed by England’s Christophe Ridley, while on Sunday, Mike Adamson of Scotland has been appointed for the clash of Benetton Rugby and Connacht Rugby at Stadio di Monigo.
In the other Champions Cup quarter-finals, Bordeaux-Begles and Harlequins at Stade Chaban-Delmaswill be refereed by Andrea Piardi of Italy, while France’s Mathieu Raynal has been appointed for the meeting of Northampton Saints and the Vodacom Bulls.
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