Ronan O'Gara and La Rochelle will arrive at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow with a familiar task. They will face Leinster in a pivotal Champions Cup game in front of a fervent home crowd, one that will be expecting their team to win.
It is the exact scenario that faced them in last year's Champions Cup final, albeit this time they will meet at the quarter-final stage. Not that this lessens the stakes in any way.
La Rochelle have been the best side in European Rugby across the last few years, having the silverware to show for it. They have won the last two editions of this competition, having also been defeated in the final in 2021. The French club would beat Leinster in each of those campaigns.
While the Irish province are desperate to win a first Champions Cup since 2018, it is fair to wonder whether La Rochelle have that same hunger once again this season as they hunt for a third championship on the bounce.
According to O'Gara, that will not be an issue.
We want to go again. It's deeper, it's touchable.
The reality is that in our language there is a team in our way tomorrow, it happens to be Leinster. After that it will be two others. With all due respect, it is an opposition that we have to take care of tomorrow to get to where we want to go.
They have their ambitions, we respect that. But this team has done immense things and I don't think we're anywhere near our potential. That excites me.
We're aware that home advantage is huge and we need to be near our best.
READ HERE: Why Stephen Ferris Thinks Leinster Will Come Out Victorious On Saturday
Ronan O'Gara says La Rochelle Cork trip was a special experience
Just as the Aviva Stadium will be familiar surroundings for La Rochelle tomorrow, Ronan O'Gara spent some time in a place close to his heart over the last few days.
He took his squad on a training camp in Cork ahead of this fixture, getting in some pivotal work at the ground of his former club Cork Con. While they were based in the luxurious surroundings of Fota Island Resort, they also spent some time in among the people of the Rebel County.
For ROG, it was a special experience.
The preplanning was that if we got through Stormers, that it made no sense to go to La Rochelle. From Paris airport it takes, to go to La Rochelle, either by bus or train it's another six hours.
Six hours up, six hours back in the same week, you lose a training day. You can't train once and try and beat Leinster at the weekend. That was in our planning to try and give ourselves the best preparation. We had a light week.
We got extremely well looked after in Fota, it's a brilliant venue. The weather was miserable, but Cork Con were great, Fota was great.
We got out a bit, we got to mingle with the Cork public. It was really refreshing to I suppose, without sounding cocky obviously, just to see that you mean something to them, you know?
That was very, very nice from a personal point of view.
La Rochelle will certainly have plenty of backing from many people in Munster this weekend, with their success over Irish rivals Leinster in recent seasons having been an enjoyable experience for quite a few in the province.
The fact that Ronan O'Gara played a pivotal role in that is sure to have made it all the sweeter.
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