Leinster 25; La Rochelle 24
Scorers - Leinster: Tries: JJ Kenny (2), Josh van der Flier, Robbie Henshaw Con: Sam Prendergast Pen: Harry Byrne La Rochelle: Tries: Davit Niniashvili, Ihaia Werst (2) Cons: Nolann Le Garrec (3) Pen: Nolann Le Garrec.
These two teams must either love or hate the sight of each other as invariably they allow rugby fans to witness dramatic fare with the pendulum swinging in various directions during the 80-minutes of absorbing play.
Those of us in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday who are used to such in-game flux were not disappointed this time around as La Rochelle came back from a poor start and middle second half to claim the lead 200 seconds from time only to agonizingly lose with the clock in the red zone to a Harry Byrne penalty with virtually the last kick of the match.
We know only too well of the rivalry between opposing head coaches Leo Cullen and Ronan O’Gara and when the visitors crossed for a converted try three minutes from time, he punched the air, believing his side could finally claim a prized Champions Cup victory.
At the sound of the final whistle, it was Cullen who had a smile of relief and victory on his face as substitute Byrne emerged as the hero, and gave both Cullen and Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell food for thought about who should be handed the No 10 jersey in upcoming club and international fixtures.
His nerves of steel, coming after Nolann Le Garrec converted Ihaia West’s try, showed he has matured into a top-class outhalf and the fact that he refused to hand over the ball for that crucial kick to the incumbent outhalf Sam Prendergast, showed both self-confidence and his ambition to become Leinster and Ireland No 1 No 10.
Afterwards he was measured in his responses on television interviews but you could see this is a young man with ambition to clear higher bars on his rugby career.
“It was special, definitely special. I guess you don't realize until after the kick has gone over, watching it eagerly, but yeah delighted it went over. I just said to Caelan [Doris], 'I want it'. I wanted to take it, I'd taken the one before and hit it off the post, but I'd hit it well. So, I felt I wasn't going to miss that one,” he remarked with a smile on his face.
A win puts Leinster in a strong position to claim home advantage at the knockout stages and while they have now won eight times in a row after a dodgy seasonal start which yielded three defeats, there are still areas of real concern for Cullen and fans who closely watch the performance of the squad.
Yes, they were missing four props in Jack Boyle, Andrew Porter, French international Rabah Slimani and Lions legend Tadhg Furlong, but even so, the Leinster scrum was unsteady and there for the taking by the bigger, stronger and mature French front eight.
It meant Leinster conceded several penalties, which will be fatal to their ambitions of winning further along in the competition unless they come to grips with the second shove against them on the practice pitch in the coming weeks and months.
Arguably even more disconcerting was the fact that the home backline was penetrated almost at will by O’Gara’s side and it is no exaggeration to claim that La Rochelle inexplicably failed to dot down when they had done all the hard work. That sort of good fortune won’t accompany Leinster every time and it also took some last-gasp scrambling by defenders to keep out the slicker French runners.
With the scrum on the backfoot and the three quarters at full pelt looking for plug leaking holes, it is perhaps unsurprising that discipline broke down to the extent that 10 penalties and two yellow cards were conceded in the first half.
The one thing that Cullen could point to in summing the game was the spirit of his side to keep trying to get on the front foot, with the likes of Jack Conan outstanding both in being the first line of defense and the initiator of attacks - two of which resulted in late tries to the Blues.
Said Cullen: “I thought the players dug in incredibly well, didn't they? When we went behind, when it was 17-12 at that stage, we were hanging in there for a period. We probably just dug in there at different stages. We just stayed in the game, kept fighting and eventually took an opportunity.
“Fair play to Harry, who stepped up and kicked the goal at the end. Again, I thought it was really good intent to play off some of that transition ball that we would have had, which leads to Robbie's try and to Josh's try [Henshaw and Cullen respectively]. They're two great moments.
“It was far from a perfect performance. We started the game well. There's probably a bit of discipline that gets us in a bit of trouble, two yellow cards. It's very hard to impose your game when you're down to 14 men at this level, because you're up against a good team. Overall, to find a way at the end is probably the most pleasing bit, because we've had to do a little bit of that this year.
"The group is showing strong characteristics. It's not necessarily us imposing our game, but we're finding a way somehow, which is good.”
In the head to heads between the two teams, Leinster now nose 4-3 ahead of O'Gara's side.
We should be thankful for such rivalry as this was indeed another memorable encounter between the two sides. The win means it is now a remarkable 30 consecutive wins in group games by Leinster in this competition.
As happened before, Leinster gained the initial upper hand with new boy Joshua Kenny getting in for two tries, one of which Prendergast converted in the opening 10 minutes.
La Rochelle then gained control and by the final 15 minutes of the half were turning the screw with tries for Davit Niniashvilli and Ihaia West, and a inch-perfect kicks from Nolann Le Garrec, saw them forge 17-12 ahead.
With both Tommy O’Brien, for a deliberate knock on, and Joe McCarthy, for off side tackling, sentenced to the sin-bin at different periods, it didn’t seem things could get much worse for Leinster until front rower Paddy McCarthy went down with a leg injury which required his being replaced by rookie prop Jerry Cahir.
What stood to Leinster at this time and particularly as the second half unspooled was their fitness - there was method in their madness to keep the ball on the pitch and run the older and bigger and heavier visiting pack into submission. They had to replace their front row long before the hour mark and this allowed the Leinster boys to have their turn turning the screw.
The tactic appeared to work when Josh van der Flier and Henshaw got over for unconverted tries but La Rochelle had their own sting of the play with their excellent outhalf West getting in from a splendid try with time ebbing away.
There was still one moment of drama as Byrne’s supremacy was the final kick and victory after an epic game - one that will long be remembered, even if it was only a pool stage fixture.
Leinster: C Frawley; T O'Brien, R Ioane, R Henshaw, J Kenny; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: R Kelleher (for Sheehan, 60), J Cahir (for P McCarthy, 42), A Sparrow, D Mangan, M Deegan (for Conan, 46-51, and 77), L McGrath (for Gibson-Park, 77), H Byrne (for Osborne, 60), A Osborne (for Frawley, 12).
La Rochelle: D Leyds; J Nowell, J Favre, S Daunivucu, D Niniashvili; I West, N le Garrec; R Wardi, T Latu, U Atonio; C Kante Samba, W Skelton; O Jegou, Li Botia, G Alldritt (capt) Replacements: Q Lespiaucq (for Latu, 60), L Penverne (for Wardi, 54), A Kuntelia (for Atonio, 54), K Douglas (for Skelton, 68), K Fraindt (for Botia, 69), T Berjon (for Le Garrec, 77), A Hastoy (for Favre, 17 HIA), N Bollengier (for Niniashvilli, 73).
Ref: M Carley (RFU).
Toulon 27; Munster 25
Scorers
Toulon: Tries: M Domon, B Whitel, G Drean Cons: Domon (3) Pens: Domon (2)
Munster: Tries: C Nash, J O'Donoghue, T Farrell Cons: J Crowley (2) Pens: Crowley (2)
Munster rugby still has the heart if not the heft or the head to be real contenders at the level of Champions Cup encounters.
They made a great attempt to cause a big surprise in Toulon on Sunday and came close before going under by two points after an amazing second-half display of true grit and never say die effort.
In the end, lady luck didn’t smile kindly on them because after coming back from the dead to lead with only seven minutes remaining, they had a tough penalty call against them which full-back Marius Domon kicked to give his side the lead for the final time. Their one consolation from the day was they travelled home with a bonus losing point for their efforts.
The men in white shirts and red knicks led by two Jack Crowley penalties before a sin-binning for skipper Tadhg Beirne saw Toulon gain the upper-hand with Domon’s converted try giving them the half-time advantage.
Clayton McMillan's side conceded two more tries early in the second half with Calvin Nash try sandwiched in between.
Alex Nankivell also was sinbinned but Munster kept up fighting for the hard yards and tries by back row star Jack O'Donoghue and centre Tom Farrell were converted by Crowley to put Munster ahead.
Then the late infringement and successful kick by Domon robbed the side of a victory that previous Munster teams were famous for in the halcyon days of O’Gara, O’Connell and Stringer.
Munster: S Daly; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, B O'Connor; J Crowley, C Casey; J Loughman, D Barron, M Ala'alatoa; E Edogbo, F Wycherley; T Beirne (capt), J O’Donoghue, G Coombes Replacements: N Scannell (Barron 44), M Milne (Loughman 55), J Ryan (Ala’alatoa 55) , R Quinn (Edogbo 55), B Gleeson (Coombes 64), E Coughlan (Casey 72), JJ Hanrahan (O'Connor 64), DKelly (Nash 55).
Ref: Karl Dickson (RFU)
Challenge Cup
In the European Challenge Cup, Ulster had an easy away 28-0 win against Cheetahs, while Connacht lost out narrowly, 33-31, to Montpellier, also in an away game on Sunday.
