WHILE THERE WAS rejoicing in their dressing room following an intense battle against La Rochelle in a rain-soaked Stade Marcel Deflandre last Sunday, assistant coach Andrew Goodman has acknowledged that Leinster have already turned the page ahead of another tricky European assignment this weekend.

Having suffered consecutive knockout defeats across the last three European Champions Cup campaigns – a semi-final reversal and back-to-back showpiece losses – Leinster finally got one over on Ronan O’Gara’s Top 14 outfit with a 16-9 victory on the road.

Although it wasn’t a do-or-die contest like their previous three meetings, this result could prove pivotal for Leinster when it comes to the final standings in Pool D of this season’s Champions Cup.

Premiership Rugby pace-setters Sale Sharks are currently ahead of the eastern province in second place on score difference – both of them are a point behind table-toppers Leicester Tigers – and it is the Salford-based club who will be paying a visit to Leinster at the RDS on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).

“The most important thing is that it [the La Rochelle win] places us well in this competition, because it is an away game in France against a very, very good team. Obviously what happened the last few years makes it sweet,” Goodman remarked at a Leinster media briefing yesterday.

“We celebrated and we enjoyed the moment of winning that game and backing it up now is the most important thing, because we have a team that is top of the Premiership and playing some really good rugby. We need a great performance in front of our fans, so we can stamp our mark at the top of the pool.”

When the starting line-up for the La Rochelle game was unveiled by head coach Leo Cullen last Friday, there was much focus around the selection of Harry Byrne at out-half for his first European start in a Leinster jersey.

Despite playing a significant part in Jordan Larmour’s opening-quarter try (and knocking over a difficult conversion), it is the man who replaced him towards the end of the first half who is set to feature in the number 10 shirt on Saturday.

Following Byrne’s withdrawal for a Head Injury Assessment, the versatile Ciaran Frawley converted a 40th-minute penalty to leave the visitors 10-6 in front at the interval. After Antoine Hastoy had narrowed the gap to the bare minimum with his own three-pointer, the Skerries man added a brace of scores off the kicking tee to get Leinster over the line.

His third and final effort was a monstrous strike from inside his own half and with Byrne now having entered the graduated return to play protocols – joining his older brother Ross on the absentee list in the process – Frawley is in pole position for a starting spot at out-half against Sale.

“It was a beautiful kick, wasn’t it? It was great to watch, just to see him have that confidence to back himself in a big moment and to pull it off,” Goodman said of Frawley’s successful long-range penalty.

“He has such a versatile skillset. Run, pass, catch and his kicking game has grown. That’s probably been the most important thing for him this year, that he has been injury-free and he has been training consistently. When you have that you can go out there and perform and that’s what he has been doing.”

As is always the case with games between Leinster and La Rochelle, there was no shortage of incidents over the course of a gruelling encounter.

One moment that garnered attention both during the game itself and in the aftermath was referee Matthew Carley’s decision not to engage with James Ryan beyond the 15th minute mark.

The English official deemed that the Leinster lock was persistently pleading for on-field decisions and he therefore opted to deal with his co-captain Garry Ringrose instead for the remainder of the action.

While Goodman revealed that the Blues will most likely seek clarification as to why this decision was taken by Carley last Sunday, he also said that the coaching team in Leinster constantly speak to their players about how they deal with referees and will continue to do so in the future.

“We always have conversations about how we deal with our language that we use. We want to be respectful to referees, the pressure they are under in a big game like that.

“The tone of voice and the way we address refs is going to be really important for us moving forward because of situations like that. I am sure that Leo and the ref will chat, they usually have a catch up Monday or Tuesday every week. We will get a bit of feedback,” Goodman added.