Leinster V Stade Rochelais. Champions Cup Final. Sat May 20, 16:45. Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620691#Comment_120620691

Shows the fire :) there's some cheap niggles from LAR, Antonio and a few of the big lads taking a long long time to roll off the last man out of the ruck, and a few cheap forearm presses on the ground too, so I'm not super surprised to see handbags.

Lucky there.

fitz

There's no way there wasn't a knock on in the lead up to that.

Burkie1203

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620712#Comment_120620712

Yeah looked a clear one

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620712#Comment_120620712

Didn't see anything obvious

Hotblack Desiato

Wow that half just flew by. Amazing start by Leinster but this match is far from decided.

tanko

This game is far from over, is James Ryan not coming back on?

Unreal half of rugby.

SaoPaulo41

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620719#Comment_120620719

Nope Ryan gone

Clegg

Ryan out is a hammer blow.

Not confident with the gap being just 9 points. Need an earlyish try in the second 40. Leinster held the lead at half time in both games La Rochelle and still lost.

ongarite

Ryan failed HIA.

Ref will tighten up his breakdown lack of enforcement in 2nd half IMO.

Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620719#Comment_120620719

Ryan off for good.

Think Peyper knows he has to keep very tight control on this, so unless there's huge uncertainty about something I doubt he's going upstairs unless forced by the TMO

Ryan a huge loss.

ctrl-alt-delete

Crazy first half, with lots of quality but also error-strewn.

Big miss with the news of Ryan failing his HIA.

Ardillaun

Sheehan is like an extra centre in broken play. I wonder if they’ll replace Ringrose fairly early?

AbusesToilets

Jenkins looks like he's strolling around since he came on. Ryan such a massive loss.

Leinster's need to sort their **** out. Gave La Rochelle a try after a great steal. Think they should've gone to the corner at least one more time

tanko

Will LAR be able to stick this incredible pace, the same question could be asked of Leinster i suppose, going to be a long 40 minutes

Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120620737#Comment_120620737

I hope not, him/henshaw/Keenan have been critical in **** things down early.

This is it

Heart isn't able for this

Clegg

Feels like there was more ball in play time in the first half than there was for the entire final last season. Hope to God that benefits Leinster later on.

La Rochelle look lethal when they make inroads into our 22. They've so many big men that they're bound to get over the gain line.

Leinster showed great ambition in the opening 20 minutes. More than I've seen in recent Champions Cup finals. They need to keep that up in the second half. That's how you win.

dastardly00

Amazing intensity from Leinster in that first half and some great set pieces. But I'm very concerned about LARs ability to just bulldoze the ball over the try line when they get within the red zone

SaoPaulo41

Really hope those 2 conversions aren't costly.

awec

When La Rochelle get the phases going they are overpowering Leinster. Tacklers getting bounced, defenders having to double or triple up in every phase.

If La Rochelle can cut the errors they will win this IMO.

Leinster really need to keep the ball away from them. I think the defensive tactics are correct, very fast line speed and try force a mistake. It’s the only option. Sometimes they’ll get outside and stroll in though, as we saw for their 2nd.

Furlong in trouble?

This isn't good.

joseywhales

Honestly we will do well to survive every scrum in the second half, the penalties will flow if they don't figure something out

Ardillaun

Leinster looking weary.

AbusesToilets

Don't get a good vibe from the team at the moment. Defense seems a bit frantic.

Burkie1203

That's a penalty ffs

Ardillaun

Leinster scrum. furlong and Ryan gone. Big test. Well done. Three points.