Only Champions Cup end game will justify Leinster's DNA change

Given that Leinster lost back-to-back Champions Cup finals in 2022 and 2023 by a grand total of just four points, there was a strong argument to be made that they were doing very little wrong.

Even when taking Toulouse to extra-time last year, their first season under defence guru Jacques Nienaber, they were just a yard wide with a dropgoal which would have won the match. Again, tight margins.

In those three games, the first two against La Rochelle in Marseille and Dublin, the better, smarter team won on the day.

So something had to be done and while the process of changing Leinster's DNA began in December of 2023 when Nienaber, a double World Cup-winning coach from South Africa arrived, yesterday looked like the job was complete.

Take the opening salvo of the 2023 final in Dublin - when a free-flowing, energetic, precise Leinster attack put 17 points on a stunned La Rochelle - and then look at how Leo Cullen's side beat the same side yesterday; it's chalk and cheese.

Every tackle, 194 in total, Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier the main men, was a statement of intent, like dogs with bones, eager to show off to their master.

They crossed for one well-worked try, which was "too soft" according to La Rochelle boss Ronan O'Gara, but this was a game won in the trenches.

Speaking on the RTÉ Rugby podcast recently, Bernard Jackman said Nienaber's bid to breed some Springbok dog into the Leinster classes was working.

"He's turned south county Dublin players into proper psychos. There’s an edge to nearly every one of them."

However, the focus on defence means less time for attack and the truth is that as they have become more aggressive without the ball, they are less effective on the front foot.

It was something Robbie Henshaw alluded