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

I think we lost it in the pack once Ryan went off. Their lineout maul killed us. We only lost by a point.

What will the Munster fans do when Munster play LAR ?

Support Munster of course.

Jenkins was useless when he came on. Was ruck inspecting from the off

I rewatched it in full last night, and Leinster lost due to a lack of leadership; Ryan going off and a passive 10 let LAR take the initiative.

After 30 mins LAR looked really rattled, Leinster just needed game management to get to half time. The try before half time had LAR going into to break knowing they could win, there was lots of doubt before that.

Leinster's kicking, from Lowe, Gibson Park and Byrne was really poor in the second half. A bit more smarts and composure at that stage would have given their defence a break a with field position maybe a penalty or two.

I thought Leinster's defence was heroic with lots of massive performances but the lack of a general in the pack and 10 cost them.

Even at the end, a few more phases to force a penalty or drop goal but a a moment of indiscipline allowed LAR play down the clock.

I think his entire conversation was about the fact that Alldritt told ROG that they were disrespected by James Ryan at the coin toss!

That was enough to fire them up for the second half.

Sadly a picture has emerged of eye contact (non-gouging type) taking place, so Alldritt was therefore very clever !!

ROG said afterwards “Normally you engage eyes and no eyes were engaged. Greg was disappointed and let down. There was a little bit of that in terms of… obviously Leinster were the home team in terms of accommodation for the families, post-match gigs. I think we’re in Lansdowne [Rugby Club, next door to the Aviva Stadium], we couldn’t get a room in this place. It’s disappointing on that front but we’ve got to accept that we’re seen as the little team, but that’s about to change.” You can never beat a bad winner.

if you think that LAR play fast flowing open rugby , thats bollocks . they deserved to win , much as South Africa deserved to win WC , but this collision rugby is causing problems , whether its concussion, half empty stadiums in many countrys and the serious struggle of the professional game. My point was leinster game is based playing a fast old style French game, that sadly is now gone, and I would hate to see Leinster switch to the collision brute rugby.

If you think they only play collision rugby you need to open both eyes, they dominate that facet and move the ball, Leinster are not the guardians of beautiful rugby.

LAR game is based on physicality , if other teams including Leinster adopt that model , just think it will cause more problems for rugby , when avoidance of concussion seams one of the biggest concerns for rugby today.

BTW I think LAR deserved to win yesterday.

This was a brilliant and exciting match for neutrals but some of the nonsense posted here is hard to believe.

Those blaming Ross Byrne for the defeat seem to have forgotten how many times Leinster have previously failed with Sexton at the helm.

One of the conversion attempts being an inch or two the other way would have made the difference to the final score. There is no guarantee that Sexton would have done any better from those touchline positions on the pitch.

If the red card incident had not occurred at the end it is possible that Leinster, despite a shocking second half, could still have pulled it off in the last seconds even with an offside penalty. (It's time that kind of torpedo style attack was banned anyway).

Most of the Leinster players are of proven winning International quality. During this past season they have provided the viewing public with fantastic exciting open rugby week after week.

Leinster really beat themselves with an inexplicable second half performance. Apart from the last five minute burst they did nothing right during that half other than some great defending.

Some Leinster players were not match fit. A prime example was James Lowe, usually a here there and everywhere player. Started off great and hit a fantastic 50/22. In the second half we didn't see him do anything worthwhile at all. Even his normally punishing clearance kicks were atrocious. JGP completely lost his sharpness and the plot.

Leinster have had a great season but not even Katie can avoid defeat by a tiny margin.

The biggest worry for Ireland is Tadgh Furlong's recent form. Not only was he anonymous but he looks completely shot.

On the subject of refereeing I have to say that, in last week's Semi at the Aviva and this week's Final, never in the history of the game have so many rule infringments been missed by so few.

La Rochelle are the most physical team I have seen play rugby. Leinster were amazing first 20 minutes and for me, they would not have had that freshness if their front liners played last weekend. So that decision to rest key players (as La Rochelle also did) was vindicated. On another day, La Rochelle could have won that game by 10 points easily. Leinster tackle count more than twice LR's says it all.

Sad thing here, if insane physicality is the way Rugby is going I cannot see a way for any of the provinces to compete to win. How many people in Leinster do you know with the same build as Wil Skelton? And can they even play Rugby.

A few 50-50 calls didn't go our way. Jimmy O'Brien competed for that ball and didn't take player out. And Doris was deemed off his feet, it looked very marginal. Also a few times La Rochelle were offside or slow to get back and really played on the edge there. But, one really annoying one they kept doing was lying on players after ruck clear outs. They are masters at it, especially Skeleton. The time when the ref caught a professional foul holding VDF's ankle could or and should of have been a yellow.

Anyway, what this really came down was that old cliche of belief. When Leinster got some amazing turnovers only to slice kicks - that's gotta to really dampen believe. Even Ross Byrne's last penalty was just getting barely into the 22 when it should have been closer to the 5.

And then he never dropped into the pocket? That was strange.

La Rochelle were better than they were last year.

Haven't watched it back yet but I found myself asking yesterday during the game "Is Doris even playing?"... Which would never happen in the last 2 seasons.

Taking an excellent 8 and moving him to 6 to accommodate an inferior player in Conan... I dunno. I've similar thoughts over the Porter switch but we're too far down that road now

I don't think the start vindicated resting the players. Do you think if they'd played last week, it would have impacted how they would play the first 20 this week? This resting players rubbish really does ruin NH club rugby for me. So many pointless games with deliberately weakened squads. The format of both competitions aren't great either, but I digress.

There has always been a way to beat big physical sides. Big guys aren't as mobile, so you make them work. You take advantage of your faster line speed, you move the ball around, you execute multiple quick ruck phases, you make them turn and run backwards with well placed attacking kicks.

Leinster lost because they failed to execute their gameplan. I don't think this is because they were forced into this by LAR, they just didn't get some of the basics right.

I haven't played rugby in donkey's years, but put me in the pocket 30m out and I'd have a pretty good chance of getting a dropkick there or thereabouts. Worst case scenario is that you'll probably get the ball back from the 22. I still don't understand why Leinster didn't even try this.

I put that on JGP tbh. I think they got a bit of white line fever, getting that close to scoring a try. You could see how disorganized they were before the last Rick. Players were wandering about, no attacking line set, no one really directing play.

I wonder also at Ringrose cutting back when he got the ball. There looked to be some space out wide.