Leinster-La Rochelle rematch promises fitting crescendo

After two one-sided semi-finals, the final of the Champions Cup is the crescendo that we've all been waiting for.

A rematch of last year. The one that keeps getting away from Leinster. The back-to-back title challenge for a small and well supported town, La Rochelle.

Both sides will feel they have the edge going into the semi-final and it’s hard to see how it’s going to play out. Home advantage may be just enough familiarity to swing it in Leinster’s favour, and with their desperation to win a title, maybe their want and need will triumph on the day.

However, La Rochelle is a current powerhouse of European rugby. Their firepower is going to cause Leinster a lot of trouble, if they can keep their breakdown discipline.

Toulouse started spritely against Leinster with fast ruck ball. The home side defended uncharacteristically, reversing into their try line area until Pita Ahki dotted down.

You wouldn’t usually see a try conceded so easily by Leinster, but the top end of Champions Cup rugby can make the extraordinary look ordinary at times. Thankfully for Leo Cullen, that discomfort was short lived.

It's the type of game that La Rochelle played for the whole day against Exeter. They regularly cross the gain line with pace and power and then just play the pace of the ruck in a less structured way.

Numerous times in their semi-final, the first player arriving at the ruck picked the ball and went forward in the softest channel around the ruck, meaning that the Exeter defence was always being moved and shifting backwards with no ability to slow the ball. When La Rochelle were in their flow, Exeter players were chasing shadows.

Going forward is always the easiest time to pick and offload and that’s what La Rochelle did. They played down