Gregory Alldritt: O'Gara changed La Rochelle mentality

With the dust settling on an incredible season for Irish rugby, which saw the national team win the Grand Slam and Munster bridge a 12-year wait for silverware, Leinster will be somewhere in post-mortem mode following their Champions Cup final loss.

Over in France the battle for the Bouclier de Brennus is on-going and La Rochelle, Leinster's conquerers, are still in the mix. On Saturday, Ronan O'Gara's side face Bordeaux in the semi-final with the winner taking on either Toulouse or Racing 92.

And in a wide-ranging interview, La Rochelle skipper Gregory Alldritt has spoken about their famous victory in Dublin, the disrespect he felt was shown to his club, the tunnel incident at half-time and the influence of O'Gara, who joined the club in 2019.

In the hours and days following the final, the La Rochelle camp let it be known that they had felt disrespected.

O'Gara remarked that some of the Leinster fans went over the top as the team bus was on its way to the Aviva Stadium.

Alldritt said Leinster captain James Ryan didn't look him in the eye during the coin toss; there was a incident in the tunnel at half-time with O'Gara, non-playing captain Johnny Sexton, and Leinster coach Sean O'Brien exchanging words, while in the press conference the La Rochelle boss said the room provided for the squad for the post-match gathering was not sufficient.

He felt that although the venue was neutral, La Rochelle were, in effect, treated like an away team.

The possibility that these various minor complaints were over-egged by O'Gara to create a siege mentality within his team has been mooted. Either way, using the slights - real, imagined or exaggerated - to motivate them clearly worked.

Speaking on Le French Rugby podcast, Alldritt was asked how