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

Incredibly frustrating loss, and no surprises at all to see this place literally full of seagulls and the usual spoofers in talking nonsense.

I don't know where the narrative exists that there was some sort of unmanageable power displayed by LAR that Leinster couldn't live with. Where are the actual examples of this from the match?

LAR scored one try in their "dominant" second half, and didn't really create another good opportunity for one.

The difference was solely down to Leinster, inexplicably, not being able to manage their exits properly (which, tbf, was illustrative of LAR's pressure game), and, very much connected, Peyper's refereeing decisions.

Why, in the second half, did Peyper decide he was no longer going to award jackalling players the penalty when they're on the ball?

Three clear examples in the second half - Dan Sheehan, Robbie Henshaw and Charlie Ngatai where they get on the ball, have to survive getting pummeled for it, and he just gives "turnover good", even though it's incredibly slow and scrappy ball. As a result - Leinster are usually out of position and scragging a kick into touch. If these three were rightly blown as the penalties they very obviously were, then Leinster kick to touch down in the LAR half and have the put in to the lineout.

That's a f*****ing enormous distinction. Leinster's defence actually dealt brilliantly in the second half with LAR's power, but the referee never gave them the penalties they were entitled to.

The decision not to give Caelan Doris the penalty on 67 mins and to actually give the penalty to LAR was the decision that swung the whole game. It's a **** disgraceful decision - he's on the ball for an eternity and more than long enough that the penalty should have been blown. From that penalty, they kick to the corner, score the try, and Kelleher gets the yellow.

The penalty against JOB in the LAR 22 when he simply contests for the high ball and Leinster win the ball was a terrible decision. That was a huge moment of territory and possession and was a bad decision.

The difference between how he refereed the sequence from 68-72 mins when LAR were on Leinster's try line to how he refereed the sequence from 73-78 mins when Leinster were on LARs was night and day. LAR got advantage constantly, every minor infringement blown immediately.

By contrast - you have Seuteni lying on the wrong side for an age and blocking JGP getting to the ball, you have Bourgarit clearly diving off his feet onto the ball at the ruck, you have the tackler holding onto Ngatai for an age after his long break preventing quick ball, after the Ringrose check back inside the sub-LAR hooker clearly swipes the ball back on the deck with his hand, and you have Skelton attempting to play the ball with his hands in the ruck on 78 mins. Multiple phases during this sequence you have the LAR outside backs very visibly offside which forces Leinster back in narrow.

Any one of these is an obvious and easy penalty.

This game wasn't about LAR's power, it was about Jaco Peyper deciding he wasn't going to referee the breakdown in the second half. That cost Leinster this game.

Secondly - I have huge respect for Ronan O'Gara and what he's achieved, but he has behaved like a prized prick the last couple of days.

You won the game, why are you manufacturing this GAA-like faux outrage over invented issues?

This absolute bullshit about James Ryan not looking Aldritt in the eye, when there is clear, undeniable images of him looking him squarely in the eyes (and, fwiw, even if he wasn't, that's entirely his prerogative).

This stupid **** about not being given a room in the stadium or something, when (a) it's the ECPR who manage that and (b) they say LAR were offered a room in the stadium.

He's clearly a great coach, who his players love, and his ability to develop a winning gameplan is excellent, but I'd wish he'd cut this utter prickishness out of his character for his own good.

It's not the case though - they didn't really cause the Leinster line out too many issues. Leinster (once Ryan was lost) inexplicably opted to not to compete on any of their lineouts.

Scrum wasn't really that significant a factor - yeah they definitely had the edge but there wasn't that many of them, and Leinster managed to claw a few free kicks and penalties out of it too.

The maul without a doubt was dominant, but my point is they consistently got the opportunity for it because Peyper wasn't giving penalties for those jackal turnovers in the second half, and because of bad execution on Leinster's part with the exit kicks.

Outside of Seuteni's line break in midfield (which led to 3 LAR points), what other clear try scoring chances did they create in the second half?

They huffed and puffed a lot and went through phases (which I get are energy sapping for Leinster's defenders), but still ultimately just got territory through Leinster errors.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say was that the Leinster half backs lost the game, not the Leinster pack.

Yeah, all of which might be true, but there is no point in suggesting they just need "leaders" - they need players who are leaders but are also of sufficient quality to warrant a place in the squad. There's a 39-year old second row playing on my J1 team who is a good leader, doesn't mean he's any **** use to Leinster in a European Cup final.

None of the Irish teams are awash with leaders either. Leinster didn't have Sexton on Saturday, and lost James Ryan then. There's no endless pool of top tier leaders though, any team would struggle to weather that sort of loss.

Doris was unlucky to be penalised but it should have been a La Rochelle penalty regardless as Van der Flier was lying on the wrong side and interfered with the clearout, allowing Doris to get his hands on it in the first place.

No, that's not the case. Murray Kinsella has the gif of the incident in his article on it today - Doris is on the ball before any LAR player gets there. JVDF rolls out to the side of the ruck, not back into the scrum half or anything like that, and an arriving LAR player (their sub hooker) stumbles over him, but he wasn't in a position where he was going to hit Doris anyway, and the line he was on he would have been joining from the side.

By the time he stumbles over VDF, Doris had already been on the ball for a solid 2 seconds and should have had the penalty.

Leinster got away with murder at the breakdown in the first half. They were coming in from the side repeatedly and supporting their weight with their hands.

If you're going to make statements like this, then why not actually suggest a few examples of it, because it's not the case IMO, and wasn't a factor in any of Leinster's three tries.