IT REMAINS TO be seen if Will Skelton is back from his knee injury for La Rochelle when they name their team to face Leinster this afternoon.
They won’t be a bit surprised in Leinster camp if the totemic Australian international second row has indeed been passed fit.
Skelton was injured during La Rochelle’s win over Clermont on 21 December and has missed their two Top 14 games since, with uncertainty over his fitness this week.
However, French media have predicted that Skelton will be in La Rochelle’s starting XV for Sunday’s Champions Cup battle against Leinster at Stade Marcel Deflandre.
And that seemed to be Leinster’s sense of it earlier this week.
“He’s always fit for the Leinster game, no matter what,” said Leinster lock Joe McCarthy with a smile when he spoke to the media on Tuesday.
“You don’t even look at the injury reports or whatever!”
McCarthy was hopeful about getting another chance to lock horns with Skelton, who has done damage to Leinster in the past with his influential performances in La Rochelle’s two Champions Cup final wins over the Irish province in 2022 and 2023.
Skelton also hurt them during his time with Saracens but they’ve had happier experiences on the last two occasions, beating Skelton and La Rochelle twice last season.
“I’ve played against him a few times, it’s a good challenge, he’s a real good second row so we really relish it because he’s a big, physical second row and you kind of find out where you’re at playing against those kind of guys,” said McCarthy.
“We have a big, physical team ourselves at the moment so…”
Skelton enjoys getting stuck into opponents verbally as well as physically, something McCarthy welcomes even if he’s no expert in this area.
“Yeah, a lot of chirping,” said the Ireland international lock. “I think it’s good. I think it’s kinda funny to hear it and it brings a bit more into the game because if you’re chatting a bit of stuff in the game, you have to bring it.
“But I wouldn’t be as good as maybe chatting during the game, I focus more on my role, but I find it entertaining, it’s kinda funny hearing a bit of chat like that in the game. I like that in the game.”
These two clubs have become very familiar with each other in recent seasons and despite Leinster’s wins against La Rochelle last season, the scars of those final defeats and a semi-final loss in 2021 still exist.
McCarthy made no bones about the strength of feeling between the teams.
“It is a proper rivalry, that’s definitely how it feels. It’s almost like a Munster, similar to that,” he said.
“The training week always feels a bit different but you always try to hold yourself to that high standard. You’re trying to prepare yourself as well as you can because you know if you’re not at your best physically, scrum and maul, it’s going to be a tough day. So there’s definitely a bit of extra edge, mainly in any Champions Cup weeks but with our history against La Rochelle, it’s a bit more personal.”
The physical battle when they met at Stade Marcel Deflandre in the pool stages last season was of the highest intensity, with heavy rain ensuring even more trench warfare than might have been the case.
Leinster just about edged the physical battle in that 16-9 win before they knocked La Rochelle out in the Champions Cup quarter-finals with an impressive 40-13 win in Dublin.
McCarthy believes Leinster are a better team now than when they won in Stade Marcel Deflandre in December 2023 but he stressed that they must bring another level of physicality this weekend.
There has been lots of talk about Leinster’s playing style in recent weeks but McCarthy hopes there is good balance in their approach in La Rochelle.
“In the bigger games, being physical and coming out physically on top is extremely important,” said McCarthy.
“Usually, you come out the right side of the battle. If you have a nice fancy plan and no physicality, that rarely ever works in rugby.
“So we always want to be super physical, on the edge, pressuring teams. But we also want to keep an important part of the Leinster DNA which is attacking really well.
“That’s something we don’t want to come away from so that is something ‘Swifty’ [Tyler Bleyendaal] is very good at drilling into us.
“We want to be as hard and physical as we can but have that ability to play the space. We don’t want to be running into brick walls, we always want to play the space, and using our forwards too.”
Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed