14 May 29, 2022The Sunday Times
Rugby Union Heineken Champions Cup final
Brawn and
brains put
Sexton
firmly in
his place
A millimetre behind the target means
a likely knock-on at the pace Sexton
and his runners like to play. The
favourites duly handed possession
back to O’Gara’s men. His next pass
hit the turf, way behind his runners,
but the whistle of Wayne Barnes, the
referee, saved them from possible
damage on the scoreboard.
A third straightforward penalty
from Sexton completed a first
quarter in which the talisman was
slow off his mark. He looked, if
anything, a little shakier than the
fearless 23-year-old who had
replaced Felipe Contepomi all those
years back in 2009 at Croke Park
against Munster. His first action was
to kick a penalty under immense
pressure, 82,000-plus and O’Gara
watching on.
Sexton may be greying, but the
frame is as gaunt as it was in his
younger days. 2009 was the year he
arrived on the grand stage to win his
first Heineken Cup. It was the year he
dropped a 50-metre-plus goal in the
final against Leicester in Edinburgh.
Unforgettable. The same could not be
said for another drop-goal attempt
near the half-hour mark.Ronan O’Gara, the La Rochelle head
coach and old adversary of Johnny
Sexton, suggested on the eve of the
final that his team “needed to get
stuck into him [Sexton]”.
There has always been more
in the way of respect than affection
between these fierce former rivals
for the Ireland fly-half position. The
words were a compliment of a kind
to the 36-year-old. When he added
that Leinster play differently when
their captain isn’t on the pitch, he
didn’t mean better.
Get Sexton. It’s one of rugby’s
most familiar refrains, and La
Rochelle had men capable of causing
legitimate damage: Uini Atonio, the
behemoth that was the returning
Will Skelton, and those ball-carrying
French grand-slam stars, the
magnificent Grégory Alldritt at No 8,
and the bowling-ball centre, Jonathan
Danty. Sexton knew what to expect.
Over the years, that slight frame of
his has been an attractive target to
opposing teams. Few individuals
have been left writhing around like
Sexton, but time and again he hasbounced up. “Stop Sexton” was the
obvious refrain. For the best part of
the hour in which he was on the field,
La Rochelle were able to do just that,
making the Leinster pull-back
patterns look a little predictable.
With the Leinster lineout
providing slick ball in the opening
minutes, Sexton was able to launch a
high ball that landed near the line,
but a metre too far for his chasers;
he had a dart off the back of some
forward charges before settling for a
third-minute penalty in front of the
posts, and three points.
More penalties for the Irish team,
more front foot, and Sexton seemed
to be picking his passes. La Rochelle
rushed offside. Another penalty,
another three points. In the early
stages the Frenchmen were hurting
no one but themselves.
Yet there was nothing the fly half
could do about La Rochelle’s try, a
matter of skill and speed, executed in
the widest channels.
Even the most experienced players
can be rattled. Only the attacking
sharpness of La Rochelle’s passing
game explains an inaccurate delivery
from Sexton in the 16th minute.Sexton, right, stops Danty with
some help from his team-matesStuart Barnes
A
h. The little town of La
Rochelle, way out on the
west coast. They took on a
team representing about
four fifths of a rugby nation
— and took them to the
cleaners, and to all other
parts of the high street.
It was a match that may have savedthe event. Leinster, strutting around
as if on a sniffy new planet, boring on
about their style (structurally formu-
laic), were utterly shut down.
They were overhauled in the last
acts of the match — another stunning
French rugby occasion — but if Lein-
ster had won it would have been the
biggest sporting travesty of all time.
And Wayne Barnes, the referee,
would have faced some pointed ques-
tions about how he had not sent any-
one in a despairing and infringing
Leinster defence to the sin-bin.
Will Skelton was staggering for the
French side, so too Grégory Alldritt in
the back row. And what of the “16th
man”? The fans from the west coast
won the battle off the field too — by too
many decibels to count.
Leinster were never in it; never on
the front foot. They had an excellent
defence out wide and up front — but
that was about it.
High claims that this is a great side
were laid to rest. In fact, they were
buried deep. La Rochelle should have
done even better with all the ball they
won. They should have fed Jonathan
Danty in the centre more. They came
close to scoring the third about 12
times — was it ever going to happen?
Oh yes it was. Arthur Retière forced
his way over and reached out — and
scored. The scenes were sensational,
and so very deserved.
It was a great day for Ronan O’Gara,
La Rochelle’s Irish head coach, who
can now name his price and his team.
He has done a magnificent job; like all
the best coaches, he has not bothered
LEINSTER
21LA ROCHELLE 24
Stephen Jones
Marseille
to grind his way up through the nor-
mal domestic channels. His team are
also young enough to keep coming.
The Leinster inquest will be wide-
ranging. They were meant to be an
unstoppable attacking team, but they
were not. It was three tries to nil to the
French forward-based team.
Leinster were meant to be scrum-
dominant, but they were second best,
by far. Johnny Sexton was meant to be
the general, but ended the game on
the bench. Robbie Henshaw was
meant to be dominant, as usual, but
he was not.
Next season, ludicrously, the final
will be played in Dublin. Or maybe
someone saw this happening and
decided to give them a home game.
French rugby is on a high. The
crowd for Friday evening’s secondary
final was bigger than for yesterday.
And French club rugby, rooted in
communities, continues to hand out
stern lessons to anywhere where
those roots are ignored.
The French side had the biggest
right-hand side of a scrum ever seen,
in the form of the massive and magnif-French reign
supreme as
La Rochelle
snatch title
icent Skelton in the second row and
the even heavier Uini Atonio up front,
and although it took them time to get a
real rumble on, they scored a
rampaging forward try on the hour to
restore it as a real contest after
Sexton’s boot had looked set to take
the game away from La Rochelle.
On the day even the likes of Tadhg
Furlong and James Ryan were cowed,
and Sexton unhappy. Leinster so
rarely established their fast game.La Rochelle had dominated the first
half despite being crippled by the
penalty count. Leinster led at the
break because of three silly penalty
concessions by the French side, and a
blunder in defence that gave Leinster
an easy position.
Apart from that it was all La Roche-
lle. They scored when Raymond
Rhule was given space down the left
after an intervention from Dillyn
Leyds, the South Africa back — it was aMATCH STATS
0 Trie s 3
39 Possession (%) 61
100 Scrum success (%) 86
86 Lineout success (%) 100
415 Metres carried 636
7 Defenders beaten 16
3 Offloads 6
3 Turnovers won 4
11 Penalties conceded 13
Leinster La Rochelle