Heineken Champions Cup - The Final

[munstermuffin]

From a position of complete ignorance I think there have been a bunch of plonkers like myself that felt if Leinster can boss Toulouse they can boss La Rochelle. Just because they play in the same league doesn't mean they have the same personnel and tactics.

La Rochelle focussed on forward muscle rather than Toulouse's finesse and had the pack to execute that. Perhaps just a tougher matchup for Leinster, played in France.

To be young, free and fluent in French on a summer's day and miserable. Gotta love sports.

Factor in location of game too. Leinster win vs Toulouse in Aviva. Different story playing in South Of France.
Leinster had no game either in France this year except when they got whipped 28-0.

But Leinster got caught to for reason they bring in Jenkins next year. They missed that physical presence in the forwards front 5

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with Lancaster's preference for more mobile and very fit players. The thing is you have to force the game a certain way for that to properly pay dividends and must have a way to control the power game when you can't. Leinster's defence have been very good at shutting down power teams early on but it felt like in this game they weren't doing enough when they had the ball to try and tire the Rochelle pack.

This felt quite different from Leinster. Dare I say it, it almost felt like the "we only have to turn up" attitude had permeated the team. They just felt off. La Rochelle were good and played some attractive rugby but watching them, I thought they had a pretty error strewn performance that normally Leinster would have capitalised on. They didn't really other than knocking over the odd 3 pointer here or there. There weren't many prolonged periods of pressure. They had a lot of penalties go their way and were lucky to escape more than 1 instance where they should have been carded. On the whole, it was probably one of their worse performances this season (at least of the ones I've seen).

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

From a position of complete ignorance I think there have been a bunch of plonkers like myself that felt if Leinster can boss Toulouse they can boss La Rochelle. Just because they play in the same league doesn't mean they have the same personnel and tactics.

La Rochelle focussed on forward muscle rather than Toulouse's finesse and had the pack to execute that. Perhaps just a tougher matchup for Leinster, played in France.

To be young, free and fluent in French on a summer's day and miserable. Gotta love sports.

Toulouse also came of the back of a monster game v Munster.

 

[Jimbo]

Probably many things involved slight arrogance included (as a player it must be difficult to not get caught up in the constant hupe), you probably do have to credit ROG though he does appear to have really analysed a couple of big games and used that to prevent Leinster playing their game, if LA Rochelle's were a little more accurate you felt there were more points out there for them.

 

[GlosJoe]

Not shocked at that scoreline tbh, La Rochelle weren't under any sort of pressure to win since most people in the build-up to the game said that Leinster would steamroller them. Glad that was proved wrong!

 

[Tooting Carmen]

A very big congratulations to La Rochelle.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Leinster need to look into bringing in veteran leadership who have experience winning big time games. BOD, Isa, and Darcy aren't walking through that door. I know it's a meme but there are zero players who have won a WC quarterfinal on Leinster's roster. Meanwhile La Rochelle have a multiple time World Cup winner and others with big game experience. There's a difference between winning at the peak of professional rugby and winning the Leinster School's cup. La Rochelle have players who have played all over the world and that diversity of approaches to the game can only makes them stronger when they face adversity.

O'Gara is a great coach. A wonderful mix of analytics, player's coach, and a reputation of a legend. I really like what Rochelle are building and the types of players they are bringing in. Not relying on superstars but a core of guys whose main responsibility is La Rochelle and that they will get to work with mot of the season. They really need a more consistent goal kicker though.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think crowd pressure really gets us, same with Ireland. The first half in Paris, Twickenham and now this, combined with a weak scrum and facing a power game we're vulnerable.

It's a shame yesterday though because we had enough support to make noise and didn't.