Brilliant Leinster banish demons, answer questions, and make it hurt

Gavan Casey

JORDAN LARMOUR’S 13TH-MINUTE jackal turnover was a snapshot of a glorious day for Leinster.

Larmour had made an initial tackle on Teddy Thomas near halfway but couldn’t thwart La Rochelle’s incursion deep into the Leinster 22′.

UJ Seuteni and Tawera Kerr-Barlow made big inroads before Leinster got over the ball and a few screws in the Aviva were loosened. It needed a double-take to fathom that it was Larmour who had made the final intervention.

This was an unbelievable Leinster performance. They beat La Rochelle from pillar to post. They beat them at their own game and in every area of the game, the scrum aside. They did something we’ve never before seen in the Champions Cup and beat the will out of Ronan O’Gara’s mentality monsters.

In doing so, they changed the complexion of a great modern-day rugby rivalry. Had Leinster lost today, they might as well have torn up their participation agreement for next season’s Champions Cup and gone on hiatus for the year. There would have been no coming back from it, at least in a superficial sense.

Instead, it will be La Rochelle who face the existential questions on their flight back to France, their pride dented to an unprecedented extent.

Leinster will say this performance was coming.

The style of it was certainly signposted: Leo Cullen’s selection of Will Connors at openside was a clear indication that Leinster were going to target La Rochelle ball at the breakdown. The beauty of Connors’ chop-tackling technique isn’t simply that it stops huge men from punching holes in your defence; it’s that it typically leaves the ball-carrier in a body position in which he’s prone to a jackal threat.

Ciarán Frawley had already pinched one off La Rochelle inside their own 22′ moments before Larmour’s even more crucial intervention. When the opposition’s fullback and right wing are raiding your ruck, you can take it as a pretty clear signifier that you’re on borrowed time on your own ball.

La Rochelle typically convey this message better than any team in club rugby but Leinster gave them a taste of their own medicine from the off.

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Combined with the wind blowing into the Aviva over blue shoulders, it made for a suffocating first half for O’Gara’s visitors, who struggled to exit their own half.

Leinster converted that pressure into two brilliantly worked tries — one scored by James Lowe, the other made by him for Jamison Gibson-Park. Ross Byrne’s right boot, meanwhile, was metronomic.

You dared only whisper it to the person beside you but on the cusp of half-time, Leinster led 23-6. That margin again: 17 points. This time it felt more real. Sustainable, even. La Rochelle had made it into the Leinster 22′ only three times. They hadn’t come within an ass’s roar of the Blues’ line.

But of course, there could be no such comfort for Leinster fans at the break. La Rochelle’s withered hand burst through the soil with the clock red.

Louis Penvene’s try felt inevitable as soon as their lineout maul — which had been effectively decommissioned by Leinster to this point — began to roll. Antoine Hastoy brought the gap back to 10 from the tee. It meant half-time butterflies for the 50-odd-thousand people in blue and it meant a slight change of plan for the champions at the turnaround.

With his team in the dressing room, O’Gara strolled out onto the Aviva pitch virtually unnoticed. He plucked a few blades of grass and tested the wind. He did it again. And again. And then he hurriedly trotted back down the tunnel.

But any sense of ominousness was quickly dispelled by the herculean hosts, who wound up keeping La Rochelle scoreless in the second half.

Andrew Porter won Leinster’s third jackal turnover shortly after the restart and Ryan Baird was sauntering down the left edge moments later, a wildly celebrating James Lowe in tow.

During the score, La Rochelle — who had already lost fullback Dillyn Leyds at the break — were relieved of influential scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow. This was a terminal blow.

After another successful Byrne conversion, Antoine Hastoy kicked his restart out on the full. The Aviva went nuts. Leinster then annihilated the Rochelais’ young front row in the consequential scrum, provoking an even more feral cheer. Leinster weren’t just beating La Rochelle but bullying them.

The champions, for the first time in Europe under O’Gara, looked a beaten docket.

Not even the most doughy eyed Leinster supporter could have dreamt up a game that would prove so gratifying.

Gibson-Park was the next Leinster back to win a jackal penalty. Demons were being banished from the premises with a kick up the arse from Ross Byrne for good measure.

Leinster’s out-half needed this game more than most. He was excellent throughout, and instrumental to Dan Sheehan’s try which killed the game on 56 minutes.

Leinster led 35-13. They had answered every question asked of them. All that remained to be seen was the degree to which they were going to make the last half hour hurt for La Rochelle.

A lot, as it turned out: Jordan Larmour beat Teddy Thomas in a contestable. Robbie Henshaw saw two things: James Lowe and grass. The centre’s exquisite cross-kick was dotted down by the juggling wing. Merci d’être venu.

There was a moment in the third quarter which summed things up from La Rochelle’s perspective as well as Larmour’s first-half jackal win did for the hosts: Will Skelton barged into Josh van der Flier after Karl Dickson’s whistle had blown, taking out a bit of frustration with an accompanying shove. But before Van der Flier could react, Skelton’s body language immediately softened. He patted Van der Flier on the arm by way of apology. Skelton understood that there was no point in inciting anything: his side had been beaten fairly and squarely by a better one.

When some pushing and shoving did break out in the Leinster 22′ during the final seconds, the crowd roared on their side with as much vigour as they did Leinster’s countless attacking chances throughout the game.

At safe remove from the melée, James Lowe faced the crowd and began playfully punching the air with both arms. He was halfway to Croke Park.

Ten minutes later, he was shooting the breeze with a smiling O’Gara on the touchline, the La Rochelle coach warmly embracing Lowe’s teammates as they walked past.

For La Rochelle, it was a battle lost. They’ll be hellbent on ensuring that the war rages on.

Leinster, meanwhile, have eyes only for the throne that now sits empty.