Speaking in the aftermath of his second string maintaining Leinster’s momentum at the expense of Munster last weekend, Leo Cullen reminded us of the vagaries of taking on French sides on French soil when asked if his side was better than a year ago when losing to La Rochelle in the semi-finals.
“It’s going to be a massive challenge, isn’t it? Playing the games in France, it’s a hard thing to do, whether that’s in a team’s home ground or even in the neutral grounds, as we have seen in some of the semi-finals in particular in France over the years. Obviously we played in La Rochelle’s home ground, an empty stadium last year, but they beat us fair and square.”
It’s true that Leinster initially outplayed and ultimately withstood a hugely physical Leicester Tigers team in their Welford Road lair in a hostile atmosphere, and ditto against Toulouse, albeit amid a sea of blue at the Aviva Stadium.
But, at the risk of repetition, today’s final is against a French side in France. Due to their pool game away to Montpellier being awarded to the home side without a ball being kicked, the last time Leinster played away in front of a French crowd was before the pandemic.
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The bulk of them do have the experience of playing for Ireland on a raucous night in the Stade de France in round two of the Six Nations, but initially that was a little bit of a shock to their systems.
“A lot of the guys played during the Six Nations, that experience away in France, the carnival-type atmosphere, so it’s making sure we’re braced for that type of atmosphere in the ground and it’s not a shock to us,” said Cullen. “That’s one of the big things. We talked in the past about being away, whether in the pool or knockout stages, that sort of assault on your senses, what that’s like, and making sure you’re still thinking clearly and still able to bring presence to the game and dominate the game, because La Rochelle potentially have that kind of atmosphere behind them, plus some of the experienced players they have, top-end French internationals plus foreign stars, All Blacks with World Cup-winning experience.
“For our guys, it’s slightly different. They’ve experienced the big stage in Six Nations away in France this year, so it’s just trying to learn from those experiences. You think back to the start of that game, how Ireland get caught with that quick start and suddenly it’s this very frantic type of game.
“We’ve gone away to Welford Road in the quarter-final game, and against a very, very physical type of team in Leicester Tigers. La Rochelle will be that physical type of team, take us on around the set piece etc, the pitch in Marseille looks better than the pitch in Welford Road.
“But it’s that type of team mindset. Very aggressive around the ruck, and that’s probably what we faced down there, so it’s trying to understand the interpretation of referees etc, all the different factors that lead into those big games.
“We’re away from home,” Cullen underlined. “I know La Rochelle are too but it’s away from home in France against a French team. So it’s learning from the past, whether it’s La Rochelle or for a lot of the Irish guys, that Six Nations game. Some of the calls in that game even, France were very aggressive around the breakdown, so in terms of a template, so to speak, they’re the things we need to make sure we’re braced for and prepared mentally and physically for as well.”
Cullen speaks from personal experience. He played in the Leinster team – then reigning champions – that lost to Toulouse in Le Stadium in the 2010 semi-finals as well as the epic semi-final win in Bordeaux over Clermont two years later and the quarter-final loss in Toulon in 2014.
He was also Leinster coach when they lost to Clermont in the 2017 semi-final in Lyon as well as last season’s semi-final against La Rochelle in Stade Marcel-Deflandre, which was empty inside although the teams were given a boisterous ovation on their way to the stadium.
All told, Leinster have played French sides seven times in one-off knock-out matches in France, either quarter-finals or semi-finals, and have lost five of them, including their last four since that win over Clermont a decade ago.
Rob Kearney played in the first five of those seven games and says of Saturday’s final: “This is not a neutral game. First and foremost that has to be stated. If this was played in the Aviva Stadium you’d be very confident that Leinster would win by 20-odd points.
“France is without doubt the hardest place in Europe to win. We know the French, probably more than any team in the world, have an ability to turn up an awful lot more at home than they do away. Now the national team are changing that narrative a little bit at the moment, but I think historically that’s always going to be in French rugby DNA.”
Kearney cites a round six game in Castres in 2017 when the home side were out of contention. “It was an unbelievably tough game. Castres were one of the poorer teams in the Top 14 but in Europe, at home, had all the pride and everything that goes with it. There’s rarely an easy win over there.”
Indeed, as much as the five defeats, the two success stories underline how difficult it is to overcome a French side in their own country in a big one-off tie, for the other victory was the famous 41-35 win over Toulouse in the quarter-finals in le Stadium in 2006.
“We reference them every single year as Leinster supporters. We still talk about that famous quarter-final away in Toulouse and that famous win over Clermont in Bordeaux because they’re enormous achievements when you do win over there, and generally they’re blockbuster games too.
“Specifically referencing 2012, and this is in no way to discredit Ulster, but that was our final that year. That was without doubt the toughest game of the whole season and humility was an enormous thing in the organisation then and it was driven by Joe, but we knew that after that semi-final we were going to really have to screw things up not to win the Heineken Cup that year. That’s how momentous an achievement it felt immediately after that game.”
2005-06, quarter-final
Toulouse 35 Leinster 41
(Le Stadium, Toulouse)
When Leinster played Toulouse on April 1st, 2006 in front of a capacity 37,000-plus crowd, Kearney was a 20-year-old in his debut season with the senior squad but had a ringside seat before making a late appearance off the bench.
Leinster had lost at home to Bath and away to Bourgoin but had advanced as the second of the best two runners-up, whereas Toulouse had cruised through unbeaten as top side and were the reigning three-time champions. Leinster had also lost heavily on their two previous visits to Toulouse.
“We were enormous underdogs. That was how Leinster put themselves on the European map, when you could see this team was absolutely serious about winning games, particularly away in France.
“What struck me about that day was that, to be fair to Michael Cheika, he had some really good power plays. He had scouted them really, really well. We worked unbelievably hard that week defensively in stopping their offloading and getting into those channels, and it was just all-out attack from the very first minute.
“And that’s the way that you have to win in France. It’s a little bit like playing the All Blacks, you have to go after them from the very first minute until the 80th minute. And it was something that we hadn’t really done. Okay, Leinster were great at doing it at home but I think that was the first time we showed that we could actually play that way away from home too.”
Indeed, that was the day Leinster unveiled their Try from the End of the Earth.
Resisting a siege inside their 22 and engineering a turnover, Felipe Contepomi countered from his own line and an exchange between Denis Hickie and Gordon D’Arcy ended up with the former scoring in the opposite left-hand corner.
“It was magic, wasn’t it, and potentially the greatest Leinster try. I know there’s been a few over the years but it would be up there. Everybody expected Felipe to kick the ball but we got it to the edge, Denis took [Fabien] Pelous on the corner and then good support lines upfield.
“That was the start of this flash attacking brand of Leinster rugby. You had Brian, Gordon, Denis, Shane Horgan and Felipe, that star-studded [team] and they were able to construct it all and put it together.”
Kearney has one other abiding memory of that day.
“After the game the French were so unbelievably gracious. It was the first time that I had experienced their appreciation and love of really good, flambuoyant rugby with great tries. All their supporters were saying: ‘Congratulations, you deserved that. That was amazing rugby.’”
2009-10 semi-final
Toulouse 26 Leinster 16
(Le Stadium, Toulouse)
Four years later Leinster arrive as reigning champions but, after a defeat home by London Irish and draw in Twickenham, they squeezed past Clermont 29-28 at the RDS in the quarter-finals.
“In hindsight, if we’re being honest, we were very lucky to win that quarter-final. Brock James missed a load of kicks at goal. Johnny [Sexton] was out with a jaw injury and Shaun Berne hadn’t played a huge amount at out-half that season. We were very much on the back foot although the score was close at half-time [9-6 to Toulouse].”
Kearney then brought the sides level early in the second half with a penalty inside his own half before Toulouse pulled away, through tries by Yannick Jauzion and David Skrela in quick succession, although Jamie Heaslip pulled one back.
“Even though it was tight for 50-odd minutes, we never really looked like winning the game.”
2011-12, semi-final
Clermont 15 Leinster 19
(Stade Chaban Delmas, Bordeaux)
On a baking hot day in Bordeaux, Brock James had his kicking boots on; four penalties by him to two by Sexton earning Clermont a 12-6 interval lead, before Cian Healy was in support after Kearney’s well-worked break turned the game around.
“It was one of Joe’s power plays that we saved in the locker for when we really needed a try. We discussed it at half-time: ‘Next play we get around their 10-metre line we’re going to pull this one out and we’re going to score. And we did.
“There was a hit-up off first phase and then Isaac Boss hit Richardt Strauss on a short ball and it looked as if he was going to give Bossy a pass on the loop, but hit me close to the ruck on an angle going back through. Brad Thorn nearly got in the way and screwed the whole thing up but thankfully he didn’t.
“Talking to Nathan Hines after the game, he said: ‘We knew that move was coming. We were on high alert for it all day and we still couldn’t stop it.’”
Kearney, man of the match, added a drop goal, James and Sexton exchanged penalties before Clermont laid siege in a pulsating endgame. Wesley Fofana claimed a try but D’Arcy knocked the ball from his hand before the last sortie was ended by Seán O’Brien’s jackal.
“Fofana really should have scored but it was unbelievable last-ditch from Darce, and that was indicative of the real fight within that team. It had started with Harlequins and Bloodgate, and showed that Leinster could physically front up without having to score a load of tries.”
2013-14, quarter-final
Toulon 29 Leinster 14
(Stade Felix Mayol, Toulon)
A defeat against Northampton at the Aviva a week after beating them soundly in Franklin’s Gardens ultimately condemned Leinster to an away quarter-final against the then star-studded, expensively assembled champions, while Sexton was with Racing.
“They were a phenomenal team at the time. Again, another baking hot day. The Toulon supporters were incredible, firing newspapers into the air when they scored, and your man took the microphone before the game to gee up the crowd.
“It’s a real cauldron. This final won’t be the same as La Rochelle playing in their own ground. That was a close enough game, we did have our chances but we gave away a lot of soft penalties and their maul was powerful.”
Wilkinson went off in the 28th minute after nailing two early penalties but Matt Giteau assumed the kicking and Mathieu Bastareaud had a big game in midfield.
2014-15, semi-final
Toulon 25 Leinster 20
(Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
A year later, Toulon were going for their third Cup in a row and the venue for today’s final was their home from home, and they would go on to complete their trio of successes against Clermont in the final in Twickenham.
“Toulon were decelerating in their progress and we had opportunities to win that game. We could have closed that out and had we won that game I think we would have won the final. You look back at real Leinster slip-ups and I think that is top three. In St James’s Park against Saracens we were 10-0 up at one stage and I would consider losing to Toulon that day was more of a slip-up than last year. We could sense that they were definitely wavering as well.”
Jimmy Gopperth was fractionally wide with a 79th-minute drop goal to win the semi-final before it went into extra time, and the game pivoted on an intercept try by the intercept king Bryan Habana when O’Brien won a turnover and Ian Madigan, who matched Leigh Halfpenny off the “t”, attempted to get to the opposite edge with a skip pass.
2016-17, semi-final
Clermont 27 Leinster 22
(Stade de Gerland, Lyon)
The Stuart Lancaster-influenced rejuvenation had been initiated this season. A free-scoring Leinster topped a pool featuring Montpellier, Castres and Northampton, beat Wasps 32-17 at the Aviva in the quarter-finals and came to Lyon with high hopes.
“I had surgery on my knee and bicep after the Six Nations in March and Joey Carbery was superb at full-back in that Wasps game. Then in the semi-final they came after us in the air pretty heavily and we lost the aerial battle, and we were probably beaten by the better team on the day.”
In what Kearney believes is a warning for Leinster today, Clermont sprang out of the blocks, tries from Peceli Yato and (after Isa Nacewa had been binned) David Strettle putting them 15-0 up in 15 minutes.
“We got exposed down the edge and away from home it’s hard to claw back that sort of lead. That will be one of the challenges for Leinster if La Rochelle do get off to an unbelievably good start, well, then the mountain is bigger when you’re away from home.”
Sexton kicked Leinster back to within three points but two more Morgan Parra penalties (the second after a Dan Leavy try had been ruled out) and two drop goals by Camille Lopez, held off Leinster despite Garry Ringrose’s wondrous 50-metre try.
2020-21, semi-final
La Rochelle 32 Leinster 23
(Stade Marcel Deflandre, La Rochelle)
Kearney was on the other side of the world, during his time with Western Force, when Leinster took on a confident, well-drilled and potent La Rochelle side in an empty Stade Deflandre, again without Sexton due to concussion issues.
“I was up at silly o’clock, but we just got beaten up and bullied on the day. The style of rugby that Leinster were playing very much fitted into how La Rochelle wanted us to play.
“I think Leinster have changed the style of rugby solely based on that semi-final last year. You see an awful lot less one-out runners, giving them opportunities of winning the collision. Leinster is all about changing the point of contact now so you’re running at arms instead of into those big shoulders.
“They contested the breakdown really, really hard. I think La Rochelle will do that again this weekend, which is a risk for them sometimes. They put a tackler plus two over the ball which is a high-risk strategy because if you don’t slow the ball down Leinster will rip you apart.”
Kearney expected Leinster to beat Toulouse convincingly, but expects La Rochelle in the baking Marseille sunshine to be a different proposition.
“It’s a final, you’re away in France, La Rochelle are still going to be very hurt from losing that final last year. But the evolution of Leinster’s game over the past 13 months solely came from that semi-final last year.”
