Gordon D’Arcy: Leinster have the template to topple mighty La Rochelle, but they need to work on it via IrishTimesSport
The disarray in defence, the error rate, the lack of coherence in attack until the game was effectively over as a contest, were symptomatic of a team that wasn’t at the race mentally.
There are few, if any, gaps in the La Rochelle teams that take the field each week. They are facilitated by a big budget but that comes with an expectation of silverware. Yet We have seen time and again that throwing money around does not generally guarantee success unless your name is Toulon. Credit too must go to O’Gara, Donnacha Ryan and the coaching team. La Rochelle are well drilled, well organised and a pleasure to watch.
Antoine Dupont’s relocation to outhalf made life a little easier for Leinster because he’s at his best when he’s at the centre of affairs, bringing Toulouse’s big men into the game with subtle passes, putting players through holes or creating one himself. In short, he is a nightmare to deal with defensively in and around the gain-line because of his defence-shredding capabilities.
La Rochelle are even bigger as a team so Leinster will have to work out which defensive system is best suited to that assignment. While Toulouse’s indiscipline was costly, I would describe it as a byproduct of the early enforced positional switches that dramatically unsettled the visitors.
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