Leinster a distant second to their dominant hosts

We’re not altogether sure why Mick Jagger’s declaration that he can’t get no satisfaction was the first thing over the PA system at the final whistle in Stade Marcel Deflandre. You’d imagine all concerned with the home club were logging their satisfaction levels at a whole new level.

First time semi-finalists against four-time winners, had La Rochelle given a good account of themselves and lost it would have been marked down as money in the bank, making a dividend for another day.

Getting to the final of the Champions Cup is not usually a pursuit for clubs with no track record of the business end.

Well, La Rochelle skipped over those details and battered their way into the big time.

It won’t gladden the hearts of the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) marketing folks to have Toulouse and La Rochelle in the final, but that’s what they’ve ended up with. Get on with it lads. French rugby is leading the charge these days and deserves this reward.

So much for the theory that Leinster would bring La Rochelle to a level of exhaustion by relentlessly quick phase play.

Those building blocks, so favoured by our provinces, never amounted to much. It’s hard to effect continuous rugby if every breakdown turns into a battle. A battle in which valuable time was lost.

Take the sequence of play, with time running out, that confirmed this competition would have a new match-up in the final in Twickenham.

Leinster belatedly were getting some time on the ball. They looked like a team in a hurry.

Luke McGrath was driving them on to give him quicker ball, anything to up the tempo.

Then it died with yet another turnover at the tackle. And who came up with the ball? None other than Dillyn Leyds.

Once referee Matthew Carley endorsed his poach, the game was as good as done.

Leyds had three moments of increasing embarrassment in the first half.

The first came directly from Ross Byrne’s drop-off, as the winger lost the ball in the sun and fumbled.

On the next restart he managed the same again, with even less assurance.

The killer came with his opt out on the next one – effectively stepping out of the road to let the ball pass.

So to have featured in a positive moment will be a relief for him.

La Rochelle were well worth the win, and the signs were evident despite a dodgy start.

After Leyds put them in trouble they stayed on the back foot until conceding a pick-and-jam try to Tadhg Furlong allowed them back to the halfway line.

The point was that they didn’t look like they were about to lose the plot. And in the physical stakes it was clear they were on a winner.

That dominance in contact was the rock on which they built their game.

It meant that if they could compete at the breakdown and slow Leinster’s ball they would be able to get more big shots on carriers in blue. The risk was the referee.

Carley was hard to read when it came to lazy runners and men on the floor.

Sometimes he pinged it, other times he let it go.

By the half-hour mark La Rochelle had conceded nine penalties to Leinster’s three, and came through a 10-minute period without flanker Wiaan Liebenberg who Carley binned for persistent fouling close to his own line.

Even with that Furlong try, and the binning, and the prospect of the referee ‘going postal’ on the home team, you couldn’t see Leinster getting the rhythm they wanted.

From first to last there was no sequence where the big, lumpy home forwards were on their knees trying to keep up.

In the meantime their half-backs were a potent mix: the dynamism of Tawera Kerr-Barlow and the accuracy of his partner Ihaia West.

Yes, Leinster were in the game up until the final bend, but they could never get close to dominance.

So the lead bounced around in the final quarter before settling comfortably in favour of La Rochelle.

At half-time they trailed 12-13, with West picking off two penalties in a row to close Leinster’s 13-3 advantage after Ross Byrne had slotted two penalties to go with his conversion of the Furlong try.

Worryingly for Leinster they conceded a scrum penalty early in the second half which was a huge tonic to La Rochelle.

So not only was their lineout maul a source of pain to inflict on Leinster but you could add the scrum to the same equation.

The critical shift in the game arrived when James Lowe was binned for using his feet to slow ruck ball when he was supposed to be rolling away. La Rochelle immediately went up a gear.

First, Kerr-Barlow was denied on a referral to the TMO, thanks to the goal-line intervention from Josh van der Flier, but what followed a minute later was textbook: Victor Vito off the back of a solid scrum, and two shunts later Gregory Alldritt was squeezing the ball over the line.

The extras from West left Leinster looking at a 25-16 deficit.

It was already done and dusted by the time Will Skelton scored.

Beaten from a long way out by a physically bruising side, Leinster were a distant second in yesterday’s contest.

 

La Rochelle – B Dulin; D Leyds, G Doumayrou, L Botia (P Aguillon 49), R Rule; I West (J Plisson 75), T Kerr Barlow (A Retiere 75); R Wardi (D Priso 53), P Bougarit (F Bosch 71), U Atonio (A Joly 65), R Sazy (capt)(T Lavault 67), W Skelton, G Alldritt, V Vito (K Gourdon 52), W Liebenberg (yc 9-19; V Vito 60).

Leinster – H Keenan; J Larmour (R O’Loughlin 76), G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe (yc 55-65); R Byrne, L McGrath; C Healy (E Byrne 57), R Kelleher (J Tracy 72), T Furlong (A Porter 57), D Toner (S Fardy 72), J Ryan, R Ruddock (R Baird 29), J Conan, J Van der Flier.

Ref – M Carley (England).