I’M LEAVING: Brice DULIN shock everyone with immediate resignation and departure today after facing…
Ronan O’Gara and La Rochelle have been through more than enough tight contests on their way to becoming back-to-back champions of Europe. However Saturday afternoon’s oh-so-close scrape with the Stormers in South Africa was uncomfortable even for this most seasoned tight-game team.
Only a missed conversion as time expired from Springboks fly half Manie Libbok rescued La Rochelle’s fate in this season’s Champions Cup as they clung on for a 22-21 victory in Cape Town. Having trailed 13-0 at halftime and 16-0 soon after the break, the French side had to fight their way back into a particularly bruising last 16 clash and ultimately book a potential quarter-final renewal with Leinster at Lansdowne Road.
Afterwards, La Rochelle’s Ireland international second row Ultan Dillane revealed that O’Gara had been far from impressed with the champions’ first-half display.
“We thought we were going to get into this game, but we were tired,” the former Connacht forward said. “It was expected that it would be a big physical challenge. At half-time, ROG had very serious words to say to us.”
“We were very frustrated. When we came back [in the second half], we had to go straight ahead, not to complicate the game. It hurt them, it hurt them. And it gave us confidence, we thought they were going to crack. And in the end, we were lucky.”
Teammate Brice Dulin revealed that DHL Stadium saw a sequel of the kind of fiery O’Gara bilingual team talk that went viral during last year’s run to glory.
“Ronan made one of his famous ‘Franglais’ speeches with a lot of words that we can’t repeat,” the full back said. “But we knew we needed to be more active and actors in our game.”
Dillane insisted that whoever wins Saturday night’s meeting of Leinster and Leicester will face a much more focused La Rochelle side in the last eight. Saturday’s titanic win in South Africa saw a lot of the visitors’ side get key big game minutes under their belts.
“I am confident that we will get into the game faster,” Dillane told French reporters. “We know we can go a long way in this competition. Having lived through these 80 minutes will help us: there is Will (Skelton) who made 70 minutes, Kerr-Barlow, too, after five weeks of absence, Jo (Danty), too, who had not been there for four or five weeks…”
