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Lowe back as Leinster, La Rochelle name Champions Cup final teams
By Liam Heagney
Leinster and La Rochelle have named their teams for Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup final in Dublin, the Irish province making two changes from their semi-final win over Toulouse and the defending champions two as well after their victory over Exeter.
It was April 29 when Leinster saw off Toulouse 41-22 minus the services of James Lowe and Robbie Henshaw, the duo injured in their quarter-final win over Leicester.
Lowe hasn’t played since that April 7 match but he has timed his return to fitness for the final to perfection. He has been named on the left wing with Jimmy O’Brien changing to the right and Jordan Larmour dropping out the matchday 23.
Henhsaw, meanwhile, made his return to playing in last weekend’s UIRC semi-final loss to Munster. That comeback was in a midfield partnership with Charlie Ngatai, who deputised for him against Toulouse.
The New Zealander now drops to the bench, enabling Henshaw to resume his partnership with Garry Ringrose. The remainder of the Leinster XV is unchanged from the semi-final.
La Rochelle have mirrored the same number of Leinster switches by making just two alterations from their semi-final win over Exeter 47-28 in Bordeaux on April 30.
Ultan Dillane, their signing this season from Connacht, has been named on the bench with his place as the starting blindside going to Paul Boudehent. In the backs, Jonathan Danty is chosen at inside centre with Jules Favre benched.
Of great interest, given that this fixture was only won last season by La Rochelle with a late converted try in Marseille, is that the French have named a bench with a six/two forwards/back split whereas Leinster have chosen a five/three split. Both teams went with the same splits last season.
The Leinster XV shows two changes from 12 months ago, Ross Byrne and Dan Sheehan taking the starting spots that the injured Johnny Sexton and current sub Ronan Kelleher had.
There are seven changes to this year's La Rochelle final XV compared to 2022, three in the backline with UJ Seuteni, Antoine Hastoy and Tawera Kerr-Barlow respectively starting in place of Toulon duo Jeremy Sinzelle and Ihaia West, and this Saturday's No22 Thomas Berjon.
In the pack, the French team's differences from last year are Reda Wardi, Romain Sazy, Boudehent and Levani Botia who take over from Toulon's Dany Priso, sub Thomas Lavault, the retired Wiaan Liebenberg and Matthias Haddad.
LEINSTER: 15. Hugo Keenan; 14. Jimmy O'Brien, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. James Lowe; 10. Ross Byrne, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park; 1. Andrew Porter, 2. Dan Sheehan, 3. Tadhg Furlong, 4. Ross Molony, 5. James Ryan (capt), 6. Caelan Doris, 7. Josh van der Flier, 8. Jack Conan. Reps: 16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Cian Healy, 18. Michael Ala'alatoa, 19. Jason Jenkins, 20. Ryan Baird, 21. Luke McGrath, 22. Ciaran Frawley, 23. Charlie Ngatai.
LA ROCHELLE: 15. Brice Dulin; 14. Dillyn Leyds, 13. UJ Seuteni, 12. Jonathan Danty, 11. Raymond Rhule; 10. Antoine Hastoy, 9. Tawera Kerr-Barlow; 1. Reda Wardi, 2. Pierre Bourgarit, 3. Uini Atonio, 4. Romain Sazy, 5. Will Skelton, 6. Paul Boudehent, 7. Levani Botia, 8. Gregory Alldritt (capt). Reps: 16. Quentin Lespiaucq Brettes, 17. Joel Sclavi, 18. Georges Henri Colombe, 19. Thomas Lavault, 20. Remi Bourdeau, 21. Ultan Dillane, 22. Thomas Berjon, 23. Jules Favre.
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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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