Donal Lenihan's Leinster v La Rochelle preview

La Rochelle based themsleves in Cork all week having flown in from Cape Town.

The weather has been so bad, the pitches that Ronan O'Gara had arranged to train on weren't fit for purpose, so he me rang late on Monday in a bit of a panic - could I sort out Temple Hill in Cork Con for him?

I couldn't let him down, but I did tell him, we're playing Clontarf in an All-Ireland League semi-final on Saturday week - if it was this weekend there was no way La Rochelle were coming in!

We were delighted to have them. They were an absolute joy to deal with, really respectful. All their big-name players just mixed with everybody, great humour among them.

But when they got down to the serious stuff in training, you can see they're going to pose a threat to Leinster - though I think Leinster know that already.

This time last week I was pretty certain Leinster were going to beat Leicester in Dublin. Unfortunately, I felt Northampton would beat Munster. Both of those transpired, but this one is more difficult to call.

La Rochelle haven't been going well. They've only won 10 of their 20 games in the Top 14, and they'd be out of the Champions Cup but for the Stormers' Manie Libbok missing a conversion at the death in Cape Town last weekend. But you can see there's something about them.

They have no fear of Leinster; they're really relaxed. They trained at maybe 50, 60% for most of the week given their travel schedule and alll of that but they are absolutely buzzing for this one.

For me, this game is a line in the sand for Leinster given all that's happened. They've lost to La Rochelle in the last three seasons in the knockout stages so it's a massive game for them.

It's incredibly tight. I'll be interested to see the teams, there's a few injury