And then there were four.
And not just any four. Leinster, Toulouse, Exeter and La Rochelle are truly great clubs.
Three long-time European contenders, with an established deep and abiding relationship with the Champions Cup, and one ambitious newcomer that has gained the respect of all the other clubs by simply winning the tournament.
These four giants all have a highly visible, long-established leader at the top of their organisation. Leo Cullen, Ugo Mola, Rob Baxter and Ronan O’Gara are the excellent coaches at the helm.
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All four have developed a unique playing philosophy that drives their teams performances.
Leinster and Toulouse have tapped into their intergenerational knowledge and play an attacking brand of rugby deeply rooted in their shared tradition of high-tempo, quality ball movement.
Over his many seasons in charge of Exeter, Baxter’s teams have become renowned for playing with a flint-hard physical edge, making their home at Sandy Park a fortress that is rarely breached. Whether that is enough to successfully go on the road and defeat La Rochelle is not impossible, but it is doubtful.
This is because of their opponents’ astonishing ability to contest and win turnover possession at the tackle which has made it almost impossible for opposition teams to mount multiphase attacking raids.
While La Rochelle possess excellence right across their attack and defence, it is the technical brilliance and bravery that Ronan O’Gara has installed in his players’ tackle contest that stands his team apart from all others.
During last weekend’s quarter-final against Saracens, another European giant, Les Rochelais’s almost pathological determination to contest every ruck with extreme physicality forced the English club into a mode of attack that resembled a panic.
La Rochelle’s hooker, Pierre Bourgarit, and number eight, Gregory Alldritt, are technically supreme at getting their hands on the ball at the ruck. They also utilise the power and bulk of Jonathan Danty and Will Skelton to launch counter rucks that look to drive the opposition backwards over the ball.
O’Gara’s extreme rugby acumen can be seen in the performance of the man of the match, Lavani Botia. The coach has transformed Botia from a quality inside centre into a destructive openside flanker. At every tackle contest he was involved in, Botia was highly effective.
La Rochelle utilise shortened lineouts, so apart from scrum time O’Gara has his team playing with only seven forwards and eight backs. It’s an approach that brings to mind the genius words of Toulouse coaching great Pierre Villepreux, who told us all to coach our forwards to be more like backs, not our backs to be more like forwards.
As it is now common for games to produce more than 250 tackle contests, La Rochelle’s dominance in this area places them in a highly advantageous position to again lift the Champions Cup. Yet the quality in the other side of the draw is so great that if La Rochelle win they still have the small matter of overcoming either Leinster or Toulouse.
These two heavyweight clubs will carry on a two decades-long European rivalry in another semi-final meeting.
Despite all the sexy attacking offloading play from Toulouse and the exceptional attacking precision from Leinster, in the back of Cullen’s and Mola’s minds will be lurking the reality that unless the winner can counter La Rochelle at the breakdown it may all, once again, be for nothing.
The news that Sean O’Brien has been handed the responsibility for Leinster’s defence to add to his role as breakdown coach next season is a huge positive for the club.
While Stuart Lancaster has done truly exceptional work across both attack and defence for the Leinster, that remit has become far too large for any one individual to cover all the detail.
And it is showing. In defence from the lineout, Leinster are exposed at the tail and to an attack returning down their short side. There are other flaws in Leinster’s defensive structure with their props being found far too often defending in the wide flanks. All three are areas that Toulouse will look to exploit.
Toulouse are one of the best clubs in the world at analysing an opposition’s defensive weaknesses and then planning a specific attacking play to exploit the flaws. They have some fertile ground on which to display their attacking prowess which so far this season has been exceptional.
Toulouse also have one unmeasurable weapon that no one else possesses. Antoine Dupont.
This rare individual has the ability to win games with his own sheer brilliance like no other player since Jonah Lomu. Unlike the giant Lomu, Dupont is physically the smallest player on his team and positioned in the area where there are the most defenders, which makes his feats in both attack and defence even more remarkable.
Dupont’s try-saving tackle on Mack Hansen at the Aviva during this year’s Six Nations is etched into the minds of all who witnessed him turn the impossible into a reality. His mesmerising abilities may yet determine his club’s fortune.
With such fine margins between the teams, the winning of the Champions Cup may come down to O’Brien’s influence in coaching Leinster’s breakdown work.
Despite the mountain of attacking brilliance that Leinster have produced all season, to lift the trophy they must gain parity at the unglamorous tasks of contesting the breakdown.
Domination of Toulouse and La Rochelle at the tackle contest looks to be impossible, but breaking even will bring great success.
