MORE THAN 35,000 tickets have already been sold for the latest chapter of Leinster’s rivalry with Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle in Dublin this weekend.

The Top 14 side, who beat Leinster in the 2022 and 2023 finals of the competition, will visit the Aviva Stadium to renew hostilities on Saturday.

O’Gara’s men warmed up for the trip to Ireland by hammering a second-string Toulon side 66-0 in the French league on Sunday evening, and Leinster are expecting another strong La Rochelle performance despite their up-and-down season so far.

Although O’Gara rested key players for the Champions Cup trip to play the Stormers in South Africa last month, Leinster are certain that a full-strength selection will be coming to Dublin.

“I can’t imagine Ronan O’Gara is going to send a weakened team over to play against Leinster,” said assistant coach Robin McBryde.

“Going on past encounters and some of the players they’ve got in their ranks as well, we’ve just got to do our due diligence and be respectful of who they are and what they stand for, and make sure that we’re ready.”

Leinster have won the three most recent meetings between the sides, two pool games and a Champions Cup quarter-final in 2024 when Leo Cullen’s men ran out 40-13 winners.

The two pool-stage games in 2023 and 2025 have been narrow victories for Leinster, so they’re expecting a game along those lines this weekend.

As such, they’re hoping that ticket sales continue ticking up towards and beyond the 40,000 mark ahead of Saturday evening.

Leinster are hoping for huge support on Saturday.

Leinster prepared for the challenge by hammering Connacht in the URC last weekend, scoring eight tries despite being without lots of their first-choice players.

Having won their last seven games in a row in the URC and Champions Cup, Leinster are happy with how they’ve built into this La Rochelle game.

“I think it’s been building up,” said McBryde. “We’ve been aware that we have created opportunities, but haven’t really executed them, which we did on the weekend.

“It’s been different territory right from the word go when you look at the season really. I think it’s put us in a better place if anything, having to scrape through narrow wins, not getting everything your own way.

“That game down in Munster was nip and tuck the whole way, so to come out on top… because a lot of these players, they wouldn’t have experienced that type of game from the start of the season.

“Sometimes you’ll see us winning and getting the points on the board, etc. It hasn’t been the case this year. We haven’t had it our own way, which is good because it makes you look at yourself with regard to ‘we need to get better at this’.

“Looking to improve week on week, not taking anything for granted, and putting a lot of emphasis on our training habits. The players, in fairness, have driven that amongst themselves as well.

“Europe is consistently where we measure ourselves. La Rochelle at home, it’s a huge game for us. There’s no getting away from it.”