There is a wariness about Leinster around La Rochelle. At least, Dillyn Leyds thinks so, believes there is too much intellectual capital in Dublin to not learn from last season and last weekend.
Wounded by Munster and now turning the page to meet the team that beat them in the 2022 Heineken Champions Cup final and the French team’s Springbok winger finds himself not so much fearful, as cautious.
Man of the match in last season’s final, the 30-year-old on the right wing and his South African team-mate on the left wing, Raymond Rhule, brought ‘winging’ centre stage, Rhoule scoring the first La Rochelle try after nine minutes.
Freshly hurt, there is still bleeding from the Munster game but looking at it from the west coast of France, not enough to blow Leinster confidence.
“Like any team when you get beaten at home, especially in a knock-out game, you take a bit of a hit,” says Leyds. “You want to come back firing shots early.
“You want to show maybe it was just a tough day as a team. We had similar situations this season int the Top 14 where we lost at home and the week leading up to the next game is all about training with a bit of pride. They [Leinster] are a bunch of quality international players and they know how to react after a loss like that.”
That’s as much as Leo Cullen said last weekend. Patch up, move on. Ronan O’Gara’s side will bring a different threat to the Aviva and Leinster can’t afford to mope around with personnel changes also part of Cullen’s prerogative as several players will come in and others have declared to be injury free.
“I don’t think they will be focusing too much on what happened but how they can fix and react to this final,” says Leyds.
He is loath to talk about his standout contribution in last season’s final win. But the memories of the game are not to allow Leinster race ahead and for him to get a feel of the ball early. Initiative is the word he uses.
That will be conveyed to O’Gara, who he says has changed the culture within the side and has made La Rochelle an attractive club where ambitious players wish to come.
“Rog is the kind of guy who always wants to win,” says Leyds. “Every little thing, every small detail, nothing is not important to him. That’s what he has brought to this club. All we want to do is win and have that feeling every single time.
“Whether it’s a little battle in training or whether it’s getting into the kick-chase line or something like that – I think that’s the kind of mindset that he has brought here.
“The direction the club is going now, you can see the kind of players we are attracting, guys want to be a part of this, and he has obviously done a hell of a lot for the club. He has obviously a long-term deal to stay with the club.”
Why wouldn’t they want that, with O’Gara linked to the England job after Eddie Jones left at the end of last year. Leinster have had Cullen with them since 2015 and the similarity is both coaches try to play an attractive brand of rugby. That’s what Leyds hopes will be expressed on Saturday.
“We don’t want to go into our shells,” says the La Rochelle wing. “We want to play the way we have been playing throughout the season. I won’t say it’s a bit of revenge. But from Leinster’s point of view I think this is the perfect final for them, having another shot at us.”
