Leinster dig deep to earn first victory over La Rochelle

It didn't have the jeopardy of their previous meetings but Leinster dug deep to get one over on rivals La Rochelle in their opening Investec Champions Cup tie.

Having lost the last two finals, and the semi-final in 2021, Leo Cullen’s side came away with an important win played out in extremely wet and difficult conditions on the west coast of France.

A fourth loss in a row would have only added to the psychological advantage that Ronan O’Gara’s side appear to have over their opponents, but Leinster held firm against some late pressure in a game that either side could have won.

The former Munster and Ireland out-half (above) was in the stands after being served with a suspension and had to watch on as poor discipline and some tenacious Leinster defence foiled his plans and handed La Rochelle a first home European defeat in four years.

Jordan Larmour scored the only try of the game in the first half and Harry Byrne's conversion and three nerveless penalties from replacement Ciarán Frawley was enough to earn the points for the visitors.

It took just two minutes for the back-to-back European Champions to take the lead, Antoine Hastoy popping over a straightforward penalty after Joe McCarthy was penalised for going offside when Pierre Bourgarit's run had stretched the Leinster defence.

There was plenty of kicking and handling errors as the rain lashed down but Leinster were able to come away with a vital score from their first sustained spell of pressure.

It came just after McCarthy and La Rochelle centre Jonathan Danty were sinbinned by referee Matthew Carley for their respective parts in a bout of pushing and shoving, both deemed to have got involved needlessly when the fray was calming down.

Playing a penalty advantage off the