THESE ARE THE weeks Jacques Nienaber was brought to Leinster for, and this is the opposition the two-time World Cup winning coach was hired to beat.
Saturday evening sees the latest installment of the Leinster-La Rochelle rivalry hit the stage in Dublin, a heavyweight Champions Cup quarter-final tie that feels like it will be season-defining for the province.
A win would set them rolling toward a first Champions Cup title since 2018. Defeat to the opposition who ended their European dreams across each of the last three seasons would be utterly devastating.
This time, the province enter the battle with a new weapon in their arsenal. Nienaber’s South Africa were specialists in winning when it matters most and finding a way to get over the line in tight games. On Saturday, we’ll find out if Leinster have adopted that steely winning edge.
“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,” Nienaber says.
You’ve got to be accurate, 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 let’s start it in this way, 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 you need a little bit of luck sometimes.”
While Leinster won a pool stage clash between the two sides back in December, the knockout meetings have been viscerally painful affairs for Leo Cullen’s men.
They were second best in the 2021 semi-final, but had one hand on the trophy before La Rochelle snatched victory at the death in the 2022 final in Marseille. Last year’s decider saw Leinster make a dream start by storming into a 17-0 lead at Aviva Stadium, but La Rochelle’s big game nous came to the fore again as they calmly, ruthlessly took control of a contest they went on to win by a point.
Ronan O’Gara’s team haven’t been at their best this season but knockout rugby is where they shine. At their best, they carry a potent mix of qualities which Leinster know all too well – La Rochelle’s bruising ball-carriers have terrorised the province over the years but the French side are well able to play, too.
Leinster’s own attacking abilities are equally outstanding and while they appear to have added more aggression to their game this season, Saturday will be where we really find out where they stand.
It promises to be another fascinating battle, with Nienaber’s influence providing an added layer of intrigue. You can be sure the South African is relishing the challenge that lies ahead.
“They [La Rochelle] have a 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 setpiece on their terms, they get momentum on their terms and then they’ve got flashy players that can create spectacles, and that’s the South African lads I know that play on the wing that can create magic.
So they’ve got a good blend and they understand what their DNA is, and they are true to that.”
The general read of these games has been that Leinster haven’t been able to live with La Rochelle’s physicality, but Nienaber says he doesn’t buy into that telling of the story.
“The narrative, how can I put it, the reality is… Well, I can’t talk about what their team will look like and obviously, we are still in the process of selecting our team but what I talk about it is, if you look at the Ireland team, and that I know because at the World Cup it was a reality, Ireland was the second biggest team in the World Cup if you look at weight.
“I think only Tonga were heavier, if you take the 33-man squad’s weights and divide it by 33, Ireland was the 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.”
As of yesterday evening, Leinster had sold over 35,000 tickets for what promises to be the game of the weekend. Garry Ringrose, Cian Healy, Jimmy O’Brien and Charlie Ngatai have not yet been ruled out of selection, with Ringrose back on the pitch in UCD yesterday.
“He started training with us today. To get selection, he has done unit sessions but this was his first team run session.
“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.
“It’s nice to have him back but there was a couple back: Charlie, Jimmy is back in the mix. Cormac [Foley] is touch and go.”
