LEINSTER CAN LOOK forward to a Champions Cup quarter-final meeting with La Rochelle next weekend but there was an acceptance the province have plenty of room for improvement after tonight’s disjointed performance against Leicester Tigers, Leo Cullen’s side winning 36-22 at Aviva Stadium.
Leinster were far from their best in Dublin but still had too much quality for the Tigers, taking control of the game thanks to a superb hat-trick from Jamison Gibson-Park inside the opening half hour.
It’s all about winning in knockout rugby, but the province will need to deliver a more rounded performance if they are to knock La Rochelle out of the competition next weekend.
“Performance-wise I think we were far from our best there,” said captain Caelan Doris.
“We know what’s required to get to the latter stages of Europe and I’m not sure that was quite it. It was enough on the day and we’re into a big week next week. Performance-wise we’ll need to be better.”
While Leinster still had enough to see off their visitors, the Tigers did manage to unsettle their hosts across an often scrappy encounter.
Leinster played some excellent attacking rugby but they’ll be frustrated with their discipline, defensive errors and work around the setpiece.
“Discipline was probably the glaring one there, we gave away quite a few penalties and backed them up, penalty after penalty, which gave them quite a bit of access,” Doris added.
Having said that they are a quality team and knockout rugby is always tricky. We got the result and that’s the main thing.”
Next weekend’s game will be the fifth meeting of Leinster and La Rochelle in four seasons. The French side won a semi-final clash on home soil in 2021 before edging Leinster in a series of dramatic finals in 2022 and 2023.
The province came out on top in a pool stage game at the Stade Marcel Deflandre back in December, but now their season hangs on next weekend’s rematch in Dublin.
“There’s no shortage of motivation given some of the results we’ve had against them over the last while. We had a good result over there which gives us some belief. But there’s massive belief in this squad and it’s about tearing into next week and putting our best foot forward.”
While details for the game are yet to be confirmed, it is likely to be a Saturday evening kickoff at Aviva Stadium.
Tickets for the game will go on general sale at 2pm on Monday. Leinster season ticket holders will be emailed with ticket details at 10am on Sunday morning.
