OFFICIAL Buildup Thread - Leinster vs Stade Rochelais Champions Cup Final 28/05/2022

Leinster aren't Irish?

There'll be a lot of ugly stuff in Leinsters post match analysis when they're back training next week. Most if it will be technical stuff which we wouldn't notice but the coaches will.

But one of the obvious errors Leinster made, in my view, was not going for the corner when they had a penalty. In finals it's important to take points, but I think we stuck to a gameplan rather than adapt to the flow of the game. Leinsters driving maul was actually excellent and they won at least 3 penalties from that. There was an element if cautiousness that I hadn't seen in other Leinster games this season.

Leinster never settled the whole game, never played their normal game.

Congrats to Ronan O'Gara. He did a lot of work to make it as a coach, spending a few years with the Crusaders in New Zealand.

I can't believe how Cullen couldn't get Leinster to do their thing in the second half. They were just nervous the whole game.

I'm a Connacht fan myself but I'll always shout for an Irish team if it's not against us.

I'm gonna have great fun over the next few days destroying Munster fans celebrating this. I'll be calling them all sorts of names, all anti-Ireland names. I'll go on to them about not having a song of their own too and using the Connacht song. 😁

La Rochelle have never won any major honours so not really a valid comparison. Most teams haven't built up years of rivalry with them. Everyone is happy for the new kids on the block when they win first time around. When they start dominating that's when the mood changes.

Leinster are among the top teams in Europe for 15 years and have a stranglehold on their league so some people not wanting them to win is much more to be expected than people in France not wanting La Rochelle to win.

Hard Luck Leinster. More than a few players didn’t have good games today.

(plenty of Irony in this thread btw)

Im only dipping in to this thread now....apologies if this has already been mentioned...but how in the name of god did Wayne Barnes not put a leinster player in the bin for the last 5-10 minutes???

Persistent penalties on their own line...he didnt even seem to warn them!!

Very nearly cost La Rochelle but thankfully justice was done in the end.....

I think this hits the nail on the head. All players worked hard but several made little impact... O'Brien, Moloney, Porter, Furlong, Dorris, Park, Sexton, Keenan.

Of the remaining players you could only really say Van Der Flier had a good game.

Yeah, Celtic v Rangers, assorted other soccer derbies (not just England), KK v Wex, Galway v Mayo, Falls v Shankill, Russia v Ukraine - no point hating someone unless you can rub their nose in it

Leinster didn't deserve to win. Very simple!

Poor performance. But, congratulations to LA Rochelle and ROG. It's kind of a shame ROG couldn't do it for Munster.

Some weaknesses exposed by LAR today in this game that need to be addressed at an Ireland level. As a Munster fan that's what concerns me most. We're in trouble in the tight 5 heading into a WC year. Granted we're in major trouble in this regard in Munster, especially at hooker and tight head but overall our scrummaging is worrying. That needs shoring up. The jury is still out for me on this Leinster back row too, a back row that is often 1st choice for Ireland. JVdF is top class, by far the best no.7 we have, but I'm not convinced on either Doris or Conan and have never been. Conan more so, have lawyers felt that he has a propensity to go missing in a gritty, niggly game. Its a biased opinion but Gavin Commbes needs game time at no.8 for Ireland. There is no-one like him in the physicality stakes available for selection for Ireland. We have no other tight carrier like that. That was Standers true value to Ireland, the ability to take on sh*tty ball and eke out a few yards. Someone in the back row has to be willing and able to do that. I'd like to see Doris used more at 8, think he could oust Conan there at Leinster and Ireland. My final worry is Sexton, granted he made one poor error today but when he went off Leinster went into their shells. He sets the tempo for the team and keeps the attack on the move, always looking to attack the line. The big worry is that both leinster and Ireland are much lesser teams without him. Like I said, as a Munster fan, today makes me worry about the Irish fortunes at over the next 18 months.

i was shouting for La Rochelle had no qualms about it, they were the underdogs, on the day they were the better team, scored 3 tries to nil and of course the ROG factor

Très bien 😎