Next week's Champions Cup final between Leinster and La Rochelle is sure to be a hugely entertaining affair.
The two sides certainly have some recent history, with the French club having come out on top during their meeting on the some stage last season. Of course, the presence of Ronan O'Gara in the La Rochelle camp also adds an extra layer of intrigue to proceedings.
The former Munster man always enjoyed getting one over on his provincial rivals during his playing days, something that won't have changed now that he is a coach.
While Leinster have a URC semi-final to contend with before next week's game, their team selection for the match against Munster gives you an idea as to where their priorities lie.
According to O'Gara, they might also be starting the mind games early of that fixture.
Ronan O'Gara questions motive of comments from ex-Leinster man
James Tracy, who retired from playing duties with Leinster earlier this season due to a neck injury, made an appearance on Off The Ball last week where he questioned the approach La Rochelle have in certain aspects of the game.
He said that Leinster would need ‘good officials because if [La Rochelle] get away with not holding their own body weight and killing the ball there’s not much you can do really'.
Those comments were put to Ronan O'Gara when he appeared on the same platform a few days later.
His response was interesting, going on to suggest that this may have been a concerted effort from within the Leinster camp to influence the officials ahead of the final.
🗣 'My 10 years has taught me to try and control the things we can control'
🏉 Ronan O'Gara gave his response to James Tracy claiming on #OTBAM recently that La Rochelle push the boundaries in terms of staying legal at the breakdown@GilletteUK | #EffortlessFlow pic.twitter.com/vy7VvaLEM8— Off The Ball (@offtheball) May 12, 2023
Wow, that’s interesting. I never heard that.
Is James Tracy part of the Leinster set-up? He’s retired within this season, he’s obviously in the set-up. He’s a family member.
If a guy gets injured he remains part of that set-up until the end of that season and you’re presented with something.
It’s interesting. I’m wondering if it’s a plant on Leinster’s behalf or James Tracy embarking on a new career, that’s the first thing that strikes me because in terms of the breakdown, he has an opinion about stopping Leinster.
We could turn it to ‘how do you stop La Rochelle?’ it depends on how you frame the question, how do you see it.
It will become a little bit spicy in the build-up to the game, certain camps put a huge emphasis on work behind the scenes with referees but my 10 years has taught me to control what we can control, put your energy into that and the better team will win on the day...
All good teams push the boundaries, there’s no doubt about that.
What’s different between the guys he would have trained with and the guys in my camp is the physical power; it’s not easy to win collisions when you run into a Bourgarit, a (Gregory) Alldritt, a Uini Atonio, a (Will) Skelton.
Footwork from the ball-carrier becomes important, otherwise it becomes a mismatch. The more dominant player wins otherwise.
It’s something we’ve been very good at, no matter who we’re playing or whose reffing.
Teams have been known to make such comments in an attempt to influence referees, although it is unclear if that is the case on this occasion.
Regardless of whether they came directly from Leinster or not, you can be certain that Ronan O'Gara will use them to motivate his players ahead of the game next weekend.
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