Leinster rested up in URC for a few weeks before the final and hard to blame them. But the SA sides can provide a similar test to LR up front in the URC, if you want to
Who would you start instead of him?
Left it way too late to test someone. Totally inevitable he wonât be available for a big game in WC. Carbery is only realistic option now and he isnât good enough. I always thought Byrne was a far better 10 but he has never done the business in a big game when needed unfortunately. Carty a fine player but they have no interest in him
Youâd imagine they have to start someone else in the NZ tests but who knows
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Itâs all set up for the redemption of Paddy
If the Two Johnnies can have a redemption arc after cancellation maybe PJ can.
Carberry has suffered massively from poor coaching.
His future is at 15.
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Thereâs still a lot of rugby to be player and Munster with proper coaches will improve significantly. Farrell is a bold enough selector so I wouldnât rule anybody out.
He has to be pressed into service at 10 at the WC first before theyâll realise that, then the fallout will all be about developing options for 10 for the next world cup.
He could go back Billy Burns.
Sign of Ireland peaking in the gaps again?
If Sexton didnât just have an off day and is actually gone into decline then there is a big problem at our half. You might as well have a robot at out half as yer man Ross Byrne and the rest of the candidates are as bad.
His brother is a good player and so jack Crowley. Both careers bottle necked at the moment. If Crowley joined La Rochelle two years ago Iâd have no doubt heâd have been featuring on Saturday.
Are these chaps going to be international standard out halves in a years time?
Itâs about game time. Injuries are usually the best selector.
From an Ireland point of view Its much better if jack is ten for Munster and harry is ten for Leinster.
Iâll field this one: no.
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Lads, are they really going with Sexton again?
A win in NZ and a grand slam will set them up for the QF loss in Paris next year nicely. Peak peaking early ireland
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Cracking whinge here from Gerry.
The reverberations from Saturdayâs fairly seismic final could be felt for some time to come. In the broader scheme of things it was the competitionâs best showpiece since, perhaps, Leinsterâs comeback win over Northampton and after the Covid disruptions of the past two seasons the tournament deserved that much.
To see the estimated crowd of 35,000 celebrate in the streets and port area of La Rochelle is an advertisement for the Champions Cup which the organisers could not have paid for, or dare to imagine in the darker days of the pandemic.
It can only serve to make other French clubs look on enviously. It also highlights how important the European Champions Cup has become to La Rochelle in a relatively short period of time and itâs hard to imagine that this dramatic shift in attitude would have happened if it hadnât been for Ronan OâGara, one of the competitionâs most legendary figures as a player.
Had Leinster won a fifth Champions Cup there would probably have been no mayoral reception, no open-top bus street parade. Thatâs what happens when a team sates its public with a success. Instead, the squad probably consider the season less than successful no matter if they win the URC, and after consoling themselves with their family and friends on Saturday, probably had a few beers among themselves on Sunday.
No less than three years ago against Saracens in Newcastle and perhaps even more so, this one will still sting, and for some time to come. Leinster had spent 13 months almost re-inventing themselves so as to avoid a repetition of last seasonâs semi-final, only for it to happen again in a final.
Itâs so hard to be coldly analytical in the immediate aftermath of a game, even for coaches. There has been some deeply critical analysis of Leinster for underperforming on the day last Saturday. Yet suppose Wayne Barnes awarded Michael Alaâalatoa a late penalty in the jackal, as he did for Danny Priso at the start of the second-half when the tackler still hadnât rolled away, and as he did when Sean OâBrien latched on for dear life in Leinsterâs win over Clermont in Bordeaux a decade ago?
Then Leinster would have grittily won a final which was effectively an away match. As in Bilbao four seasons ago, theyâd have won a final without a scoring a try. As in Bilbao, they would have shown the character of champions.
Instead, as OâGara noted, La Rochelle would have been labelled bottlers and Leinster, a la Liverpool, are not great after all.
Scoreboard analysis, eh?
In truth Leinster were far closer to beating La Rochelle in an away final last Saturday than they were behind closed doors 13 months ago. They werenât at their fluid best. They left chances behind. They actually started the game really well, with a potent maul and a good launch off their line-out.
Far be it from this column to question Johnny Sextonâs judgement amid the midfield maelstrom â what he sees in a split second is akin to the camera angle from the helmet in Jamie Foxxâs quarterback in Any Given Sunday â but one wonders if he had pulled the ball back for Garry Ringrose after Ronan Kelleher had peeled infield. La Rochelle had narrowed up. Ringrose might have put Jimmy OâBrien over.
It was that kind of day for Sexton and Leinster. Events conspired to give them an away final in France against the best supported team in France, and their most voraciously hungry club, in hot temperatures with Wayne Barnes as ref.
Selfless chase
The bounces of the ball didnât go their way, particularly when it brushed off Jimmy OâBrien for a goal-line drop out rather than a scrum on halfway, and when not going dead from Brice Dulinâs ensuing drop goal and Thomas Berjonâs selfless chase collared Sexton. Sexton will know he still should have cleared the ball although by then, to compound their day, the captain is limping after James Ryan caught his left leg when tackling Dillon Lleyds in the first-half.
When itâs not your day.
The try that might have killed the game remained tantalisingly out of reach. Leinster played some good rugby. They had to in order to earn seven kickable penalties. But perhaps that was even part of OâGaraâs plan. Keep risking playing Jamison Gibson-Parkâs arm, even when part of the ruck. (How did La Rochelle get away with that?) Keep pushing up, even if it risks offside. Whatever else, donât let them score a try.
Maybe, as Sexton wondered aloud without prompting, Leinster should have risked going for a seven-pointer as La Rochelle did in the last 10 minutes. But nearly all Leinsterâs penalties were dead straight in front of the posts, guaranteed three-pointers, and itâs hard to quibble with the decision-making each time.
It was fitting that Shaun Edwards was in the crowd. Most worrying of all, along with going after Leinsterâs breakdown, cutting off the edges and defending in their faces, OâGara and co took a leaf out of the Edwards manual and provided a template for how to stymie and beat inventive and skilful sides like Leinster and Ireland. Saturday had shades of Paris last February.
And as Irish sides now have a question mark over their scums, then go after them there. Even if means scrummaging utterly illegally, as Leicester did in Welford Road and La Rochelle last Saturday, with their pack angling toward Tadhg Furlongâs side even before the put-in.
Physical behemoths
La Rochelle deserved their win for sure. They had their array of physical behemoths to force their way over the line and good luck to OâGara and them. What heâs done in his first season as a head coach after assiduously learning his coaching trade with Racing, Crusaders and La Rochelle has been remarkable and way ahead of schedule. He looks well placed to be Irish head coach one day.
Leinsterâs wounds will take healing. Leinster and Ireland could do with a win against a French side on French soil. Itâs long overdue and has become a monkey on the back. But come the start of next season, while it may be a tougher nut to crack with the South Africans aboard and Saracens back, at least theyâll know the Champions Cup final is in the Aviva Stadium.
It may not seem an inspiring choice. Predictably, some of the criticism across the pond has been way over the top. But itâs chosen because Dublin is a guaranteed winner. Thatâs because the Irish supporters have punched way above their weight, unlike others, and after an 11-year absence the city deserves it.
It wouldnât be the worst place in the world to earn that fifth star either.
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Poor Leinster
Iâd suspect Gerry knows no more than you or me about the illegal scrummaging claim. Sounds like something he heard in the press box
Leinster definitely should have gone for the throat for a try at some point. ROG said as much in the immediate post match interview.
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I could be all wrong but I thought it was noticeable La Rochelle gave penalties away right in front of the posts where they knew sexton wouldnât turn down the three points. The scrum wasnât going to be an option either.
It was a smart way for La Rochelle to conserve energy. No long Leinster phased on their line.
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