- La Rochelle 32-23 Leinster
- Skelton try seals date with Toulouse at Twickenham
Beneath a clear blue sky on the Atlantic coast there was no mistaking the shimmering new force in the European club game. Leinster had been hoping to add a fifth gold star to their jerseys but the four-times champions were instead comprehensively crushed by a La Rochelle team now awaiting an all-French finale against Toulouse at Twickenham on 22 May.
It was a triumph not just of power, with the giant Will Skelton’s 74th-minute try crowning a shuddering personal display, but of perceptive management. Few know more about Leinster’s capabilities than their former coach Jonno Gibbes and longtime adversary Ronan O’Gara, La Rochelle’s director of rugby and head coach, and, after a wobbly start, the Top 14 side’s precision and strength at the breakdown, allied to their territorial superiority, increasingly left the visitors nowhere to go.
