Leinster Fall At Final Hurdle To O’Gara’s La Rochelle

Leinster’s quest for a fifth Heineken Champions Cup title faltered during the dying minutes as La Rochelle replacement Arthur Retière reached out for the decisive try in a 24-21 final win.

In energy-sapping heat in Marseille, Leo Cullen’s men led 12-7 at half-time and finished with all of their points coming from penalty goals – six from captain Jonathan Sexton and one from replacement Ross Byrne.

However, their much-vaunted attack failed to furnish a try and they were left to rue a key period in the game when failing to take advantage of La Rochelle lock Thomas Lavault’s 63rd-minute sin-binning.

After earlier tries from Raymond Rhule and Pierre Bourgarit, last season’s beaten finalists built for a big finish, their monstrous pack chipping away before Retière emerged as the late hero.

The victory, on the back of a classy team performance, saw Munster and Ireland great Ronan O’Gara deliver a first European trophy for La Rochelle. He is only the third person to win the Champions Cup as a player and coach after Leinster’s Cullen and Ugo Mola of Toulouse.

Donnacha Ryan, O’Gara’s former provincial and international team-mate, has also been a key cog in La Rochelle’s coaching set-up this season, while for Cullen and Leinster, there is little time to wallow with the United Rugby Championship play-offs starting next weekend.

Since being crowned European champions in Bilbao back in 2018, Leinster have won four league crowns but Champions Cup success has eluded them. Saracens and La Rochelle have handed them a brace of defeats each.

Speaking after their second European final loss in four seasons, Cullen admitted: “You can’t fault the effort. There’s bits in the game we don’t quite execute at different stages. Different parts of our game which put us under a little bit more pressure, undue pressure.

“That’s what you expect in this type of game anyway. It’s high stakes, high pressure, against a French team, away in France.

“We know it’s not easy. But there’ll be some good learning, for some of the younger guys in particular, for the future because we’re always desperate to win this tournament, properly desperate.

“At 18-10 (in front) we look like we’re in control. It was a couple of little decisions, the bounce of the ball. It’s fine, fine margins. We’d love to have a crack at it again, but you don’t get those second chances in finals, do you?”

In front of a raucous crowd of 59,682 at the Stade Vélodrome, Leinster were firmly in control across the opening exchanges, veteran out-half Sexton knocking over two penalties during a promising first eight minutes.

Nonetheless, on their first meaningful visit to the Leinster half, La Rochelle notched the game’s opening try. Dillyn Leyds, the Heineken star-of-the-match, got his arms free in contact and offloaded to winger Rhule, who stepped inside and finished superbly.

Ihaia West’s conversion put La Rochelle in front, but despite a promising spell, they fell behind again in the 21st minute when Sexton’s third penalty further punished their ill-discipline without the ball.

O’Gara’s charges slowed up Leinster’s ruck ball noticeably and turned the decider into a real dogfight. They threaten in attack over the next 10 minutes but could not find the cutting edge required to cross the whitewash again.

In response and with the interval looming, the pre-match favourites won a scrum penalty against the head five metres from their own line. They duly went down the other end to put La Rochelle under late pressure.

Another penalty in front of the posts was dispatched by Sexton in the last action of an intriguing opening 40 minutes, sending Leinster back to their dressing room with a five-point lead.

The margin was back down to two points just seconds into the second period, as Leinster conceded a penalty from the kick-off and Kiwi number 10 West was successful from the tee.

The surefooted Sexton hit back with two more efforts over the next 13 minutes as La Rochelle continued to concede penalties around their 22-metre line.

The Top 14 outfit managed to get over the line on the hour mark, though, as a powerful maul rumbled through and allowed influential hooker Bourgarit to dot down, West’s conversion making it a one-point game (18-17).

Moments later, La Rochelle second row Lavault was sent to the bin for tripping Jamison Gibson-Park. Byrne, who came on after Sexton picked up a knock, fired home the resulting penalty.

Appearing to be galvanised by the yellow card, La Rochelle went on the offensive and continued to opt for scrums in front of the Leinster posts.

Their captain Grégory Alldritt, Will Skelton and Dany Priso very much led by example up front. With their bench providing the greater impact, their hard-carrying forwards rubberstamped their coach’s post-match point that they are ‘a second half team – the data says that’.

La Rochelle returned to their full complement, keeping up the intensity, but Leinster’s colossal defence was seemingly unbreachable until scrum half Retière ducked under a tackle and finished smartly with an outstretch arm.

TMO Tom Foley confirmed that the grounding was good and West took enough time with the conversion to ensure it was the final act of a tense but thrilling contest.

Speaking in the aftermath, Leinster skipper Sexton commented: “We came within 60 seconds of it. It’s a tough way to lose, in the last few seconds and not even have a chance to come back and try and win the game.

“La Rochelle came with a plan. I didn’t see them coming back from the lead we had but we didn’t clear our lines well enough and we paid the price. They’re a top class team, we knew they were going to be no different.

“It’s tough to take. There were a lot of things that didn’t go our way in the last 30 minutes when we were in control of the game. That’s the devastating bit.

“We had plenty of chances to score. Maybe we should have been a bit more aggressive and gone for tries on a couple of those penalties.

“We decided to take the threes and keep the scoreboard ticking over. Hindsight’s a great thing. Everyone’s experts in hindsight. We made the decisions, and we were in control.”

The only consolation for Leinster on a day of bitter frustration was that their in-form flanker Josh van der Flier was named the EPCR European Player of the Year for 2022.