WITH SEVEN MINUTES to play the Leinster players stared up at the big screen for dreaded confirmation. Somehow, the province were trailing La Rochelle by a point. Somehow, the Champions Cup was slipping from their grip again.
How had it come to this?
At that point Leinster’s blistering start to this contest felt an age away. During that dazzling first quarter, Leo Cullen’s side were near perfect as they sprung for three stunning early tries to race into a remarkable 17-0 lead. The only blots on the copybook were two missed conversions from Ross Byrne. How those four points would come back to haunt them.
And this was a haunting experience for a Leinster squad who are now presented with the harsh reality of a second successive season without a trophy in the cabinet.
With 12 minutes played, it looked as though their Champions Cup dream was going to become reality in Dublin.
After just 41 seconds Dan Sheehan was over the line, darting over in the corner after La Rochelle were cut open with a clever lineout move that had Andrew Goodman’s fingerprints all over it.
It only got better from there. James Lowe clipped a beautiful 50:22 into the space behind the La Rochelle defence. Two minutes later, Jimmy O’Brien was over for try number two.
Finally a La Rochelle player did something of note, with scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow sent to the bin for a cynical foul. Jamison Gibson-Park spun a beautiful pass out to Sheehan on the wing and the hooker went over for his second. In 80 minutes of rugby in Marseille last year, Leinster failed to score a single try. Here they had three in 12 minutes.
Having set the pace, they then invited their visitors to chase them down.
La Rochelle had 68 minutes to overturn a 17-point deficit, a scenario that would signal game over for most sides.
Yet what Ronan O’Gara has instilled in this group is a ferocious competitive edge. They put that out there for the world to see in reaching last year’s final following their defeat to Toulouse in the 2021 decider, and then in how they clawed back Leinster’s lead to spring a shock in Marseille. Even that historic success didn’t sate their appetite, and a year down the line here they were again, as determined as ever to spoil Leinster’s season.
The slow start set them back but didn’t knock their belief. They’d never stared into a challenge like this before but what unfolded was possibly the single most impressive Champions Cup triumph ever.
It wasn’t that O’Gara’s team looked poor in those opening exchanges – they simply hadn’t been given a chance to play. Leinster were fast, deadly accurate, and notably physical against the team that ended their European dreams in 2021 and 2022.
Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw thundered into tackles. James Ryan and Will Skelton followed each other around as if there was a piece of string attached between them. Every hit by a Leinster player felt like it had been 12 months in the making. With half an hour played, one of those exchanges saw Ryan’s day ended due to a HIA. He would prove to be a huge loss.
By the close of the first half, La Rochelle somehow clawed it back to nine points thanks to two converted tries either side of two Byrne penalties. Skelton was typically immense, Brice Dulin was superb and Jonathan Danty barreled through the carries.
After an aggressive opening 40 from the home side, the second 40 would be about absorbing a relentless La Rochelle onslaught.
La Rochelle got their big ball carriers more involved and one by one, Leinster’s leaders fell. Having already lost Ryan, Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw would also be forced off across a bruising third quarter. Add in the absence of Johnny Sexton, and that’s a lot of key voices missing for the most important moments of the season.
As the half wore on Leinster looked increasingly nervy, struggling with their exit kicks and rarely making it beyond the halfway line.
For the most part, Leinster’s huge defensive effort held up as they won penalty after penalty on the edges around their own 22, each one followed by enthusiastic celebrations aimed at the lively home support.
Yet all the while their energy drained and there was a sense of inevitability about what was coming.
Then it arrived. On 69 minutes La Rochelle were handed another penalty and turned down a gift-wrapped three points to kick to the corner – a massive, ambitious call. The penalties kept coming as the tension rose and eventually, their patience was rewarded as replacement tighthead Georges Henri Colombe broke through.
The nerveless Antoine Hastoy converted and La Rochelle moved into a one-point lead they wouldn’t surrender across a wild finale, Jonathan Danty seeing yellow before Michael Ala’alatoa saw red.
It had been a masterclass in game management which opens up a whole host of questions for both sides.
Leinster now head into a summer of change, Sexton and Stuart Lancaster heading for the exit ahead of the arrival of Jacques Nienaber after the World Cup. It will require a big effort to pick themselves up from this.
For La Rochelle, it’s a stunning achievement in winning back-to-back Champions Cup titles. O’Gara has transformed the French club and the Corkman’s stock is now sky-high. The former Munster and Ireland out-half is under contract until 2027 but there will be plenty of suitors looking his way, and he’s already spoke of his interest in one day moving into Test rugby. The next stage of his coaching career will be fascinating watch, but all that can wait for now.
On Friday afternoon, O’Gara breezed into a packed media room at Aviva Stadium and told the waiting press that he was viewing this fixture as a home game for himself. This afternoon, he came back into that room and took his seat beside the Champions Cup trophy. On a day where the Dublin venue played host to a classic contest, a team fully built in his image delivered one the great Champions Cup final performances.
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