WHEN HE WAS asked about La Rochelle on Saturday evening, Leinster boss Leo Cullen wasn’t willing to go there.

While Leinster has just secured their passage into the Champions Cup final by hammering Toulouse, Cullen stressed that La Rochelle still had to play their own semi-final against Exeter before there could be any discussion of a possible repeat of last season’s decider.

“It’s just about that disrespect to other teams in the competition,” said Cullen.

“I just don’t think that we can talk like that ever.”

This has been his message in recent weeks – everyone needs to stop disrespecting other teams. He’s been frustrated about some of the hype around Leinster, the big expectations that they will drive onto a Champions Cup and URC double. To be fair, when they run five tries past Toulouse in a semi-final win, it doesn’t help to quiet that talk.

Now, though, we can all discuss another Leinster v Stade Rochelais match-up. Cullen’s team have suffered at the hands of Ronan O’Gara’s side in the last couple of years. In 2021, the Irish province lost 32-23 at the Stade Marcel Deflandre in La Rochelle. Last year, Ronan O’Gara’s men edged the final in Marseille on a 24-21 scoreline.

This time around, Leinster have home advantage with the final set for the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 20 May. They feel they’ve learned from the past defeats.

“It’s all about trying to focus on the performance rather than the occasion,” said second row James Ryan, who captained Leinster again on Saturday in Johnny Sexton’s absence.

“It’s not really about getting to the final, it’s about winning it.

“So, you’ve just got to keep getting better, looking at our performances and seeing what we can do better, doing things we can build on.

“There’s plenty from that game [against Toulouse] that we can be better at, so we’ll look at those things and be better. We have to be better next week as well. It’s all about performance.”

A home Champions Cup final will be a new experience, even if many of this Leinster team recently played a Grand Slam decider in the Aviva Stadium. That was a nervy occasion but Ireland beat England to spark major celebrations.

Now, Ryan and Leinster are hoping for something similar.

“Having a final in Dublin, it’s the stuff of dreams,” said Ryan.

Leinster celebrate their semi-final win. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“We haven’t been in that position before, it will be important in terms of how we manage the group.

“We have to strip it back, don’t get too side-tracked by the occasion and be very much process-focused. I know that’s boring, but that’s what will be needed.”

As for Cullen, he insisted he’s just interested in this Saturday’s clash with the Sharks in the URC quarter-finals, with that game also on at the Aviva Stadium due to Bruce Springsteen’s concerts at the RDS. There will be a capacity of 19,000 at the Aviva.

“The South African teams, we’ve one that’s littered with Springbok talent, what way do they play? They play a game that’s a very strong set-piece game, put a huge emphasis on scrum and lineout maul,” said Cullen.

“So, we’re making sure we’re getting ready for that kind of battle first. That’s the first plan the players will see, the plan for next week and we’ll see what comes after that.

“It’s a great challenge coming next week, Noel McNamara coming home – someone that knows us very well, always a challenge when you’ve a coach in the opposition team that has coached a lot of the lads through underage and various different teams in Schools, U20s and knows exactly the way we do things.”

Cullen hopes to hear another vocal crowd there this weekend. He joked that Sexton has been roped in to sell tickets.

“It was an amazing occasion today, the big crowd makes it so special,” he said on Saturday. 

“I know it’s a lot to ask of supporters to dig deep and go again, but it would be amazing to have a big crowd. It’s a nice time, 5 o’clock, Claire will be working overtime in the ticket office, Sexto will be helping her out.”