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'That's the worry for Leinster, when they come up against teams with that power, can they handle it?'
The quest for five Europeans titles will have to wait another year for Leinster who bowed out of this year’s European competition with a surprising defeat to French club La Rochelle.
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Coached by former Munster player and Ireland international Ronan O’Gara, La Rochelle held Leinster close at halftime before dominating the second half to run away as 32-23 winners.
The physical, confrontational style of La Rochelle was reminiscent of past defeats for Leinster in big European games, having lost a final to Saracens in 2019 on the back of dominant display from the Saracens pack.
Leinster were again knocked out of European play in 2020 by Saracens, when they hosted the relegated Premiership club in a home quarterfinal at the Aviva.
The defeat to La Rochelle left many fans questioning the strategy, saying they need to ‘re-think how they play against dominant collision winning teams’ with mounting evidence that the current approach isn’t working.
One fan described the defeat as a ‘paddlin’ beyond what you’d have expected for Leinster’ and another suggested they needed to ‘start producing more animals’ or play a smarter game.
An oft-overlooked point but all the same, Leinster will need to rethink how they play against physically dominant collision winning teams. If it means needing to be clinical, fine, but evidence is mounting this isn’t a good strategy.
— Brian Connell (@BrianConnell67) May 2, 2021
La Rochelle are very, very good but that’s a paddlin’ beyond what you’d have expected for Leinster. Never fired a shot outside the first ten minutes
— Ronan Murphy (@Ro_Murph) May 2, 2021
Leinster and Irish rugby have a problem with the power game. Today again brings the problem up. Need to either start producing more animals or play more clever like Ireland v England in Six Nations #LARvLEI
— Telf Rugby (@RugbyTelf) May 2, 2021
Lose collisions, lose the game – unless you kick really well.
Leinster lost a lot of collisions and didn’t kick well so they struggled badly against a massively powerful La Rochelle. #LARvLEI
— Three Red Kings (@threeredkings) May 2, 2021
Hooker is okay, I think. But teams Leinster face in the final 4 in Europe are going to have freakishly large and physical players from around the world in their starting XV. Leinster will struggle to match that with Irish qualified players.
— Karl Brophy (@KarlBrophy) May 2, 2021
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'People come to Leinster to learn about their system… now they're going to go to La Rochelle' | ?
Bernard Jackman on how Ronan O'Gara took La Rochelle from a Tier 2 French club to the top of Europe | ??@VodafoneIreland | #TeamOfUs
PODCAST ?? https://t.co/S1nLeCBFrE pic.twitter.com/4CuqioVr2o
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) May 2, 2021
The leinster where unlucky line is being played on alot of channels, they were roundly beaten and swatted aside, they never had a chance after 15 minutes, no unlucky on the day shite.. they were disposed by a better side who shouldve scored more #LARvLEI
— Hayes of Hlymrekr ???? ???? (@Kingof_Munster) May 2, 2021
Speaking on Off the Ball, Irish coach and pundit Bernard Jackman called it a ‘very disappointing’ loss after last year’s quarter-final defeat to Saracens at home in Dublin.
“That third quarter, La Rochelle took it by the scruff of the neck, got scoreboard lead and didn’t look back. They didn’t let Leinster back into the game,” he said.
“No matter what Leinster tried, La Rochelle had an answer for it. Very disappointing day for Leinster, on the back of the Saracens defeat in the Autumn, to lose today to a team like La Rochelle who don’t have a European pedigree will definitely hurt.
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“That’s the worry for Leinster, when they come up against teams with that power, can they handle it?”
“Saracens did it to them a couple times, Racing had them under serious pressure in that final they won and today, La Rochelle, really took away any area of the game Leinster thought were going to be strengths for them.”
“They’ve got two titles already this year but this is the one they really want. They judge themselves on being champions of Europe but they’ve fallen short again.
When asked whether their is a worrying trend for Irish teams suffering heavy defeats at the hands of physical teams, Jackman said that it is a byproduct of playing the same way at domestic level and expecting it to work against stronger teams.
“That’s what we use to dominate teams in the Pro14. So we bully teams in the Pro14, we’re more physical, more powerful than the majority of teams we play against.
“So that’s the problem, we get away with it week in week out, and then coming into the business end of Europe, or at international level, that tactic doesn’t work.
“We don’t have the habits of trying to unlock it through creativity so it’s definitely a worry for us.”
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
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