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Leinster continue quest for record fifth European title against La Rochelle
By PA
Leinster will continue their quest for a record fifth European title when they tackle French challengers La Rochelle.
The Top 14 title contenders stand between Leo Cullen’s team and a place in the Heineken Champions Cup final at Twickenham on May 22.
And after Leinster knocked out defending champions and quarter-final opponents Exeter last month, they are favourites to march on.
La Rochelle, coached by former Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara, are first-time Champions Cup semi-finalists.
They reached the last-four through impressive victories over Gloucester and Sale Sharks, but Leinster will comfortably be their biggest test yet, even with home advantage at Stade Marcel-Deflandre.
Leinster are again without captain Johnny Sexton, who has not played since undergoing a head injury assessment during the Exeter game three weeks ago.
Ross Byrne, architect of Leinster’s victory over the Chiefs, continues in the number 10 shirt, while there are also starts for centre Garry Ringrose and lock James Ryan.
La Rochelle show a solitary switch from the side that accounted for Sale, with flanker Wiaan Liebenberg taking over from Kevin Gourdon.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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